New Assassination Classroom
by Butterfly Chikage
Summary: An SYOC for the 7-years-after follow up story on Gokuraku High School's delinquent Class 3-5, following Shiota Nagisa-sensei! Update: CLOSED! Sorry!
1. Submission Form

Special thanks to KyrieEleisonElise for encouraging me to post this! :D

Hello, this is Chikage! So this is my very first SYOC, and I'm so excited! (Yes, I gave in in the end lol). But I'm not doing a normal Assassination Classroom SYOC. The original assassination classroom plays a big part in this, and you guys will help me make an entirely new class for NAGISA's very own assassination classroom seven years later at Gokuroku High School! :D

There is a plot line to this entire story that will bring both classrooms together (even the original), but I won't tell you what that is yet. Mm, with that being said, be prepared for the (new) class to not show up in every chapter for the sake of plot development.

Uhmm, so since this is my first time writing one of these, I hope you guys will be lenient with me! :) (I'm really very nervous. I hesitated for about three weeks before posting this).

Students wise, I want at least 25 and at most 35.

UPDATE: I am not accepting more than 30 students! I have currently 26. See the class list for more detail.

I have 5 of my own prepared for the story, and if I don't get enough, I'll either delete it or fill in the gaps myself. For the form, I'm not expecting very much like most people are, but I would like it to be as detailed as possible. And feel free to make your characters as messed up and psychopathed as you like! (You can tell from the atmosphere at the end of the anime). However, I do expect them to be realistic. We can't have real assassins in the class because that's totally against the law, and we're not trying to assassinate Nagisa or anything (that would be terrible!). So real assassins, no real weapons, no criminals, etc, etc. That includes family members...Mooostly. I'll make a couple exceptions here and there probably. Just ask, but don't blame me if I say no, okay? :(

This bugs me, so I'll go ahead and mention this. I've already had this happen, but if your character's name(s) is/are in English, please change it or ask me for advice... I might accept stuff I think would be able to pass, but if not, I have to make them transfer students and I don't want a whole class full of that. Thanks!

PLEASE PM ME THE CHARACTERS! I will accept reviews if you've already typed it out or something, but PLEASE PM ME THE CHARACTERS! I don't want to spoil their personalities for everyone else. It also helps me hide my own characters, so I don't want people thinking I'm biased. Thanks :)

* * *

 **Name:** (Last name, first name. Preferably. [Like Shiota Nagisa or Akabane Karma. Or even my screen name, Tomomi Chikage.] Just tell me if it's the other way around.)

 **Gender:** (Because some names are unisexual).

 **Appearance:** (Include hair color, eye color, any type of accessories, extras. I'm just assuming that they're all wearing school uniforms.)

 **Height:** (Not good with numbers, so just say 'short,' 'average,' or 'tall.')

 **Personality:**

 **Family Background/Relationships:** (Will be going into detail about these in the story! Btw, I don't care if these are all melodramatic sob stories and stuff (cuz I'm good at that) but again, make it relatively realistic. I don't want any of that criminal related stuff.)

 **Friend Groups:** (If you have any interrelated characters, tell me. Otherwise, I'm in charge of this).

 _School Subjects:_

 _1) English_

 _2) Home_ ecs

 _3) Japanese literature_

 _4) Math_

 _5) History_

 _6) PE_

 _7) Chemistry_

 _From the seven above, tell me (each must be classified, except for PE):_

 **Stronger Subjects:**

 **Weaker Subjects:**

 _For PE, I would like to know:_

 **Physical strengths:** (Pick from _strength, speed, stamina,_ or _neither._ It would be great if you could follow that up with a description of to what level.)

* * *

Uhh, I think that's all, really. Hm...if I come up with anything, I'll say. If I do anything wrong with your character, please PM me and tell me. Nicely, if you would. If there's something specific you want me to change, I'll change it. If there's something vague you want me to change, I'll do my best to edit it. I'm making this class with your guys's characters, after all. You can nitpick at the smallest details and I'll get to them ASAP! :)

Oh, also, it'd be convenient for me to have a half-half boy-girl ratio in the class. I'll say if I need more of one gender.

Another last minute note, I don't want any second Okajimas. I can't write about that stuff.

Again, I still don't know much about this yet. I don't know how many people I'll get to sign up, either, so I'm super nervous. I only have 15 students right now, so feel free to sign up for as much as three! (That's the maximum for now. I'll count down as I get closer to the number of submissions I want).

Thanks,  
Chikage

PS Finals are soon, but, you know...screw finals. But if I delay posts, that's probably why.


	2. Original Class Occupations

Okay, since this is the seven years after version, I'm going to need a little help on something. I have been deciding jobs for the original class, and I'm stuck on a few. It'd be great if you guys could give me a hand in deciding and looking over/reviewing to make sure everything sounds right! :) Thanks!

So this is what I've got so far...

 **Akabane Karma**

 **Job:** Government official

 **Isogai Yuuma**

 **Job:** Charity sponsor(?)

 **Okajima Taiga**

 **Job:** Cameraman [A/N: This feels wrong...it shouldn't be here...but...]

 **Okano Hinata**

 **Job:** Gymnastics (mountain tours)

 **Okuda Manami**

 **Job:** Scientist/Researcher

 **Kataoka Megu**

 **Job:** Swim coach

 **Kayano Kaede/Yukimura Akari**

 **Job:** Actress

 **Kanzaki Yukiko**

 **Job:** Nurse

 **Kimura Masayoshi**

 **Job:** (part time: delivery messenger)

 **Kurahashi Hinano**

 **Job:** Nature Tours

 **Shiota Nagisa**

 **Job:** Teacher

 **Sugaya Sousuke**

 **Job:** Artist

 **Sugino Tomohito**

 **Job:** Baseball player

 **Takebayashi Koutarou**

 **Job:** Scientist/Researcher

 **Chiba Ryuunosuke**

 **Job:** (part time: shooting arena)

 **Terasaka Ryoma**

 **Job:** Politician's apprentice

 **Nakamura Rio**

 **Job** : Translator

 **Hazama Kirara**

 **Job:** Librarian

 **Hayami Rinka**

 **Job:** (part time: shooting arena)

 **Hara Sumire**

 **Job:** Chef

 **Fuwa Yuzuki**

 **Job:** Mangaka

 **Maehara Hiroto**

 **Job:** Businessman(?)

 **Mimura Kouki**

 **Job:** Film editor

 **Muramatsu Takuya**

 **Job:** Ramen shop owner

 **Yada Touka**

 **Job:** Lawyer (in training)

 **Yoshida Taisei**

 **Job:** Bike fixer (motor shop)

 **Ritsu**

 **Job:** Idol (connection linker)

 **Horibe Itona**

 **Job:** Machinery factory

 **Asano Gakushuu(?)**

 **Job:** Currently leaning towards "Board Chairman/Principal" [A/N: Figure I should put him in here, but still debating]

 **Karasuma Tadaomi**

 **Job:** Ministry of Defense

 **Irina Jelavich**

 **Job:** Ministry of Defense

...And that's all on me. I feel like all the people they gathered in the end of the anime at the classroom are all the people they couldn't find jobs for. Sighs. If you could give me some ideas, that would be great, because otherwise I have to wing my way through. But that won't be until a long while later, I think...

Thank you so much! The next chapter I post will most likely be the class list!

Some of them I couldn't think of a full-time job for so I gave them a part-time job for the time being.

Thank you so much for those of you who submitted a character! I really appreciate it!

~Chikage


	3. Class List

Okay, so I'm at 15 submissions! Yaaay~ :D I'll continue updating this list as I get more submissions (hopefully) but I will start the chapters...tomorrow. I have a big project I have to do today. (Hooray for procrastination~) But as long as I have ideas, it usually doesn't take me that long to write chapters.

* * *

Well, first...I'm actually really surprised!

This is my current gender ratio:

 **14 boys : 13 girls**

It doesn't normally turn out that well via PM submissions...or, I wouldn't know, since I've never written one before, but that's what I'd guess :P4

UPDATE: I AM AMAZED AT THE PERFECT GENDER RATIO DESPITE HAVING 22 STUDENTS ALREADY! :O (Thanks to Mary Allen for helping!)

UPDATE: It's tilting...:(

UPDATE: Final ratio! I'm actually pretty satisfied. :D

* * *

This is the current class list in the Japanese alphabetical order (or, as close as I could get it to without reference. Btw, I'm not Japanese):

1) Akagawa Masako

2) Akutagawa Hirokazu

3) Amane Ameko

4) Amafune Yoh

5) Kagaya Kenryuu

6) Kagirinai Anka

7) Katsumi Hiro

8) Kaminaga Masaki

9) Kamiya Kazuharu

10) Kusanagi Wakana

11) Kuroi Fan

12) Kyouki Nozomi

13) Sano Masahiro

14) Shinigami Kal

15) Shinsou Ayato

16) Tsukamoto Kazuya

17) Tsukiya Arisa

18) Tenshi Lyka

19) Nishiomi Miya

20) Doumoto Jun

21) Hanasaka Ayaka

22) Mikanegi Meiko

23) Miyamoto Rin

24) Muramasa Ran

25) Yozora Naoi

26) Raikatuji Yukio

27) Roux, Keda

Ehh, there are a couple I have awaiting moderation because of certain circumstances, but yes! I have currently 15 students in the class! :D That makes me really happy! (My biggest paranoia when posting this was that no one would sign up.)

UPDATE: THE CLASS LIST IS COMPLETE! :D

* * *

 _Thanks so much to the following people for submitting characters:_

Squee the magical bunny

Da Kaleidoscope

624dongtranvu

Schlaf

Mary Allen

TheRoseShadow21

Aira Aura

scarletthehunter

Blue-Black Flames

Piece of Sheet

DJ Candy

KyrieEleisonElise

ScarletArmory1

NitroTheKid88

 _I really appreciate it! I'll try to update as soon as possible and I hope you enjoy it! :D_

 _UPDATE: IF I FORGOT TO ADD YOUR NAME, PLEASE TELL ME! It just means I skipped past it by accident. Thanks!_

* * *

Umm, a heads up, I think it might be impossible for me to introduce all the characters thoroughly in the first chapter. I'll try my best, but I don't know yet. My focus will start with those characters who came first (because I feel like that's only fair).

Also, tell me if you don't like this idea, but I plan on writing small segmented portions each from a different point of view. THAT MEANS...both given name and surname (for most) will be used throughout the story, depending on who's point of view it's from. Which means, you and I get to learn their names and personalities together! :D Let's have a great time! If you strongly disprove of this, just tell me, and I'll try to write from a more omniscient point of view. I just want to get more into the characters.

* * *

Character Slots still remaining:

I have some spots reserved for people, so plus reserves, I'd have...around 26 students. That actually works for me.

Ideally, I could stop at that, or I could accept **1-2 more characters.** I don't mind if we go over that by a few, but I changed my mind (from what I initially said on the submission form chapter).

I AM NOT ACCEPTING MORE THAN 30 STUDENTS!

That's already a pretty large class O.o

 **UPDATE: I'm closing the admissions! Sorry!**

* * *

Thank you so so so so so much! I was actually super paranoid to post this because I was worried nobody would like it, and then after I had my first submission (special thanks to Squee the magical bunny!) I literally had a fangirl moment of relief...and then I freaked out some more (in excitement!) when I saw all the messages...and now I'm even more worried than I was when I began for the story itself. Again, thanks so much for the people who submitted and those who are just reading! :)

~Chikage


	4. Chapter 1: Teaching Time

**A/N: Hello! So, you see, I wanted to at least** ** _touch_** **on every character...that's not happening. I got to half of it and was at 10 pages in 12 pt font, so I'll get the other half later. If your character isn't present in this chapter, I'm sorry, please don't take offense, I'll do my best with the next chapter.**

 **Erm...the following characters were not introduced yet:**

Akagawa Masako, Amafune Yoh, Kagaya Kenryuu, Kagirinai Anka, Katsumi Hiro, Sano Masahiro, Shinsou Ayato, Tsukiya Arisa, Mikanegi Meiko, Miyamoto Rin, Yozora Naoi.

 **All others were touched on, albeit super briefly.**

 **A note before we begin: this is a trial chapter. I liked how it began...and then it became a giant mess in the end. So please tell me what you think about your character, the writing itself, etc. I may scrap the entire back half of the chapter if I need to. Just be honest with your reviews!**

 **~Chikage**

 _*Disclaimer: I do not own Assassination Classroom._

 **Edit: Well, I got a lot of good feedback, so I've decided to leave it as is...**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Teaching Time**

The persistent ringing of a telephone echoed inside an office.

A middle-aged woman sat behind the desk doing paperwork, her chocolate brown hair pulled back in a tight bun and her eyes focused on her work. Without stopping her pen, she absently reached forward and picked up the telephone, placing it between her ear and her shoulder firmly.

"This is Hanasaka Miki speaking. How may I help you today?"

"Ah, hello, Hanasaka-san."

The somewhat childish voice that came across was that of—a man's? A woman's? It was a little hard to tell—just a little bit—but the woman was able to place her finger on it as a male voice. The voice she didn't know continued speaking.

"I'm your daughter's homeroom teacher, Shiota Nagisa."

The woman's pen paused on her paper, and she tapped it a couple of times before responding. "My daughter…?"

"Yes. Hanasaka Ayaka, correct?"

"Oh, you mean Ayaka. Sorry, my daughter has told me that she found the atmosphere there completely intolerable. I am currently searching for another school nearby."

"My apologies, I should change that. I'm her new teacher, and I hope to take care of her for the year."

The woman placed her pen down and swiveled around in her black office chair. "Then you're saying you have the class under control now?"

"I believe so, yes."

There was a pause as the woman thought, contemplating her daughter's schooling.

"Very well."

The voice on the other side of the telephone seemed to let out a breath of relief when she finally responded.

"That girl can take care of herself. I'll allow Ayaka to return tomorrow for one day only—and then I'll see what she has to say about it."

"Thank you very much! I look forward to seeing her tomorrow!"

Hanasaka Miki placed the phone back down, standing and walking over to the window to look outside, where her daughter had arrived outside the building and was waving wildly with a smile. With a similar smile, she waved back.

Meanwhile, Shiota Nagisa hung up the phone simultaneously, letting out a breath of relief. His blue eyes ran over his desk as he made a mark next to 'Hanasaka Ayaka' on his clipboard containing the students' names.

"All right," He said to himself with a smile. "After that comes Mikanegi-san…"

He picked up the phone and dialed the next number.

* * *

Humming to herself, Kamiya Kazuharu picked up the curler and leaned over her vanity table to peer through the mirror. Her dark, chocolate brown eyes focused on her reflection, gently curving the long bangs of her sleek caramel-colored hair in towards her forehead, stopping her humming to focus on her work.

A few moments passed as she did this, and then she finally released it and smiled as soon as the curl jumped into place.

"Perfect!"

"Kazuharu! It's almost time to leave!"

Kazuharu jumped a little when she heard her mother's call, and then she quickly set the curler down and unplugged it before returning it.

"Coming!"

She quickly grabbed her school bag, careful not to ruin her new manicure for the week, and headed downstairs to meet her mom. Once she approached the kitchen and swung into her chair for breakfast, she noticed her brother sitting on the other end of the table.

"Ah, good morning, Oniichan!" She said cheerfully.

Her brother scowled upon seeing her and stood, dropping his dishes in the sink before grabbing his school bag and heading towards the front door. "I'm going now."

"All right, have a safe trip!" His mother smiled, and the door slammed shut.

Kazuharu pouted slightly. "Oniichan's a meanie…"

Her mom noticed her glistening lips and frowned. "Kazuharu, I've told you not to put on lipstick before breakfast."

"It's not lipstick," Kazuharu said defensively as she wiped it off with a napkin. "It's lip gloss. I don't like heavy makeup."

"Yes, yes."

After she finished her breakfast, she reapplied her lip gloss quickly and turned towards the door. Her mom stood behind her as she slipped on shoes.

"Do you think you'll be all right? To go back to that class of delinquents…" Her mother said worriedly.

"If the teacher said so himself, then it'll be fine!" Kazuharu insisted as she took her bag from her mom. "But my grades…"

Her voice trailed off as she let the sentence hang. But her mom just laughed lightly.

"Don't worry about your grades, Kazuharu," She said kindly. "If you play your cards well, I'm sure you'll be able to settle down in an advantageous marriage when you grow older."

"This again?" Kazuharu sighed as she pulled open the door. "I told you already, Mom, I'm not getting married anytime soon."

"But—"

"I'm off now!"

Her long hair swished as she ran out the door and in the direction of her school.

* * *

"Oh, Amane-san!"

Amane Ameko turned when her name was called. Her almost shoulder-length black hair obscured her vision briefly before it was swept back, the raindrops at the ends of her headband nearly hitting her on the head.

She smiled when she saw her classmate Kamiya Kazuharu run up to her.

"Hello, Kamiya-san," She said politely, a little bit shy. "Are you also heading back to school?"

Kamiya stopped next to her and the two began walking alongside each other on the sidewalk. Ameko knew she was taller than most girls, but the height difference between her and the other girl was really quite astonishing. It didn't help at all that Kamiya was the shortest in the grade.

Kamiya's chocolate brown eyes blinked twice before she stood on her tiptoes to examine the girl's face.

Ameko leaned away instinctively. "Um...is something the matter?"

"Oh, no!" Kamiya beamed. "I was just wondering what kind of blush you were wearing, Amane-san. It looks really pretty."

"It's not blush," Ameko said quickly, "it's just natural…"

"What? Really?" Kamiya sounded surprised. "Your eyelashes too?"

"Yeah."

"That's neat!" Kamiya beamed.

"Then, Kamiya-san, you wear makeup?" Ameko asked, a little timidly.

"Just a little bit!" Kamiya answered brightly and looked up at Ameko, closing her eyes to show what she meant. "I don't like too much makeup, but a little is always good."

"I see" was all Ameko could come up with in response.

The two girls walked for some time before a familiar person walking not far in front of them came into view, and as expected, Kamiya called out to her immediately.

"Hanasaka-san!"

Another one of their classmates heading in the same direction, Hanasaka Ayaka, turned to face them. Her red-brown hair was tied up in a long ponytail with a red ribbon like Ameko had last remembered, and Hanasaka's blue eyes were only a slightly darker shade than her own.

 _It seems people really don't change all that much, even after six months,_ Ameko thought to herself.

"Kamiya. Amane," Hanasaka noted as she stopped to wait for them.

"Hanasaka-san's going back to school too!" Kamiya said happily.

"Yeah, well—" Hanasaka began.

Ameko interrupted, tilting her head curiously with a cute face. "But…don't you have to? You're the class representative and all."

"Hang on!" Hanasaka protested, looking flustered. "That doesn't mean anything! Plus, I've only been class rep for pretty much two days—six months ago!"

Ameko smiled sweetly. "I guess that's true."

"I wonder what the teacher is like though…" Kamiya mused.

Leave it to her to keep a conversation going.

"I'm sure he'd be a nice person," Ameko noted, gently pulling at the ends of her black hair out of nervousness.

"I hope so, right?" Kamiya beamed.

"Well, he has to at least be a satisfiable teacher if he was able to convince my mom," Hanasaka commented.

* * *

Shinigami Kal was rather tired of hearing his girlfriend repeating the same thing once again.

"Like I said, what's the point of going back to class? It's not like you even need it or anything."

The girl speaking in a light tone was Tenshi Lyka. He wasn't trying to brag or anything, but she really was undeniably beautiful—anyone would admit it. Her hair was pure blond, glistening in the sun, compared to his own hair that only seemed even a dark blond in the light. Her unusual crimson irises tinged with annoyance. Standing next to Kal, her pale complexion seemed even lighter against his tanned skin tone.

"Don't you agree, Kal?"

"Meh," Kal shrugged, "it might be interesting to just check out the situation. We've got nothing better to do anyway. Not to mention, you need it, don't you?"

Lyka paused as she thought briefly before turning back to him with a sunny smile. "You could always teach me, couldn't you?"

"Why, you can't learn by yourself?" He teased her.

"Of course I can't learn by myself!" Lyka insisted, her cheeks flushing. "I'm not like you Kal!"

Kal laughed.

"By the way…" She looked over her shoulder. "Anka's late, isn't he? Do you think he's still sleeping?"

Karl gave her a look and said sarcastically, "That guy?"

Lyka laughed. "I guess not, huh? I'd wait for him, but I really want to see what this teacher looks like too…"

"Then we should go on ahead." Kal's voice sounded somewhat bored as he spoke. "He can catch up."

"I guess that works too!" Lyka chirped, and Kal smiled.

* * *

Muramasa Ran let out a breath as she stood before the classroom door of Class 3-5. She checked the tag as her hand hovered before the small slit of the sliding door.

 _Well, I have the right classroom. Worst case scenario would be making a fool of myself in front of the teacher on the first day. It'll be fine. It'll be fine._

Ran calmed herself quickly and steeled her nerves. She swung her bag over her shoulder, careful of the pinkish French braid resting on it, and she slid the door open.

She had been expecting a messy, vandalized classroom of delinquent property, but was left staring in shock.

The walls that had once been run-down and scribbled with all sorts of nasty comments had been rejuvenated and cleaned to perfection. The trash had been picked off of the floor and thrown away, with the floor equally polished. The desks were all lined up neatly in rows, ready for class.

And the infamous delinquent of the class?

He was still there, and he was fighting. But it was a total one-sided fight—with a short, blue-haired boy.

"Wait, what's going on here?"

From behind Ran came another one of her classmates, Kaminaga Masaki. She glanced over her shoulder briefly at him, but her attention was quickly attracted back to the classroom.

 _What is this? Why is this happening? Erm, calm down, Ran. Think. Think…._

Her peach-colored braid swung back and forth as she shook her head. _I can't think of anything!_

Kaminaga noticed her reaction. "You don't look surprised at all, Muramasa-san."

"Huh?" Ran blinked. _I don't?_ All she said in reply was a blunt "I'm confused."

At her unexpectedly calm attitude contradicting her straightforward statement, she only succeeded in making him even more confused than he already was.

The boy looked over briefly, dodging and blocking blows from a high school boy over a head taller than him with ease. He brightened when he saw them, smiling.

"Ah, hello! We'll be finished shortly, so go ahead and have a seat."

Ran blinked once. _….Huh?_

* * *

Nagisa ducked under a straight punch thrown by his student and shifted his weight forward, curling around the boy in a swift movement and at the same time using his own momentum against him by pulling gently on the front of his shirt.

Securing him a safe fall, he pushed the taller boy to the ground face-first and pinned him down by wrapping his arm back in a harsh death hold, pointing his finger at the boy's neck.

Nagisa smiled gently, stepping off and helping him to his feet. "It's unfortunate, but it looks like you couldn't kill me today, either. With that, let's have a good class session today, Doumoto."

The boy spat and stormed to his feet himself. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Nagisa just smiled and picked up his attendance book from one of the books, turning to the two unknown students standing at the door. As he started talking, three more girls joined them at the doorway, all staring in shock at the classroom and the teacher. "Good morning. Please take a seat—"

"What are you doing here, Hanasaka?" The boy behind him snarled suddenly as he was talking, and Nagisa turned in surprise. It was the boy he had just been fighting. The teacher had grown to know the ringleader of the delinquents a little better: his black hair slicked back and black eyes angry, his name was Doumoto Jun. His fighting style was completely rough and unpolished in all ways, but Nagisa didn't mind a little morning exercise every now and then.

His blue eyes looked between Doumoto and one of the girls who had just arrived, a ponytailed girl standing at the doorway.

The ponytailed girl's blue eyes narrowed at the sight of him coldly. "Oh, if it isn't Doumoto. You're still here? You don't learn, do you?"

"What was that, hypocrite?" Doumoto sneered.

"Yeah, I'm already regretting not making it permanent," She retorted, and then her leg swung out and she kicked the desk next to her to the ground with a loud clatter.

"Umm….What's happening?" The dark-haired girl with the raindrop headband spoke up shyly.

The girl with the French braid frowned. "They couldn't be still going on about…"

"It's about the time that Hanasaka-san broke Doumoto-san's arm, isn't it?" The short girl with long caramel hair asked in a far too upbeat tone.

Nagisa sweatdropped. "You know, I think I more or less understand what's going on here now."

"You looking for a fight?!" Doumoto drew his fist back.

"Wait! Hang on!"

A tall girl suddenly ran between them, holding her hands out. Her thick, curly black hair bounced on her shoulders as she moved, and her brown eyes moved back and forth between them warily.

"You shouldn't fight! There should be a way—"

"Piss off, Roux!" Doumoto snarled.

"Don't call me that!" The girl insisted. "Also, there should be a way to solve this peacefully—"

Nagisa clapped his hands twice to interrupt and turned to the students who had just arrived with a smile. "Umm, could I have your names please?"

"Okay!" The shorter girl clapped her hands together, revealing her teal-colored, rhinestone-embedded, French tip manicure. "My name is Kamiya Kazuharu!"

"I'm Amane Ameko…"

"Muramasa Ran."

"I'm Kaminaga Masaki…" The only boy there said, and then his voice trailed off and he added reluctantly, "and that over there is Hanasaka and Keda—"

"By any chance, are you Shiota-sensei?" Muramasa interrupted suddenly.

Hanasaka turned to her with a frown. "Isn't he just a junior high school brat?"

Nagisa felt the words stab him directly in the heart.

"Yeah, but what would a junior high school brat be doing here?" Muramasa followed it up with an equally painful question, her green eyes blinking innocently. In a way, she reminded Nagisa of his old classmate Kurahashi, but he was too insulted at being reminded of his short stature twice in a row to pay much mind. The girl stiffened after she spoke. "Er, no, I didn't mean it like that…"

"That's right….I'm your homeroom teacher, Shiota Nagisa," Nagisa said in a slightly hesitant voice.

"You are?" Kamiya's surprised voice only made it worse.

"Actually, I was supposed to be an intern, but the original teacher quit, so I'm your full time homeroom teacher now," Nagisa explained. He smiled. "Let's get along!"

"S-Sure…" The students all seemed to sweatdrop.

Suddenly, at that moment, their faces changed to one of shock and tension. Kamiya even gave a call of "Watch out!"

But Nagisa had already seen Doumoto's punch coming from behind, dropping his attendance book and his pen in one swift movement and turning around—

 _Clap!_

A shocking sensation ran throughout Doumoto's entire body, leaving him stunned and paralyzed, in which Nagisa took the moment to pull a chair over and gently set him down on it.

"That's too bad, Doumoto. Please pay attention in today's lesson if you would."

He smiled amidst the shocked silence before turning and picking up his attendance book, taking it to the front desk.

The door behind them slid open again, and the boy that was just walking up stopped abruptly.

"What exactly happened here?"

As far as Nagisa could tell, he had broken pretty much every single school regulation. With purple hair spiking sharply to the left and magenta eyes framed by glasses, he had proceeded to wear a wristband on his left wrist, his collar button was left open, and he had neglected his black blazer entirely by leaving it tied around his waist. Fingerless purple gloves covered the palms of his hands.

Even Nagisa, on his first day, could tell this much. But before he could go to speak, Amane did instead.

"Kuroi-san….Tsukiya-san is going to yell at you again," She said politely.

"Let her."

So Nagisa checked his attendance list for his name and found it halfway down—Kuroi Fan.

"But really, what happened here?"

* * *

Kusanagi Wakana opened the door to Classroom 3-5, stopped, and immediately slammed it shut again as she turned to leave.

 _I should just skip first hour. Yeah, I think I'll do that. And then I'll come back later._

She nodded to herself, brushing the fringe of her light blue hair out from her in front of her left eye, but of course, it just jumped right back in place. She never understood her hair; it seemed to insist on blocking half of her vision, and it was wavy throughout until just the very end, when it became super curly.

As she was walking down the hallway, walking around all of the other students gathered around, a tall girl suddenly brushed by her.

Wakana knew her. The girl was in her class, Keda Roux. She was half foreign, and she never liked being called by her surname. Also, she was the tallest girl in the grade. Sometimes, Wakana noticed, after the girl said some things, she'd leave the room almost immediately.

Keda noticed her and stopped. "Sorry, Kusanagi-san!"

Wakana nodded her head once wordlessly with a smile.

The next ones to enter the school building just as Wakana was leaving were Shinigami Kal and Tenshi Lyka. She knew they were dating as well, but she didn't know much about them outside of that, and that made her rather wary.

"Ah, Kusanagi-san!" The girl noticed her immediately and smiled kindly. "Hello!"

"Good morning," Wakana returned the greeting, "Tenshi-san."

"Like I said, Lyka is fine, just Lyka!" Lyka insisted. "And of course, that's Kal."

"You skipping class again?" Kal asked, even though he obviously already knew the answer.

The 'again' had made its point clear.

Wakana nodded with a smile. "Yep."

"Oh, okay, have fun!" Lyka gave her a bubbly chirp before she took Kal's hand and hurried down the hallway.

Wakana exited the school and raised her hand as the bright sunlight hit her face directly.

 _That teacher might not be all that bad…At least it was clean. The classroom._

* * *

 **And that's that...Like I said, the back...the middle section, really, became a huge jumbled mess. But I want to see what your opinions are before I try again (if I need to). I'm really sorry if I screwed everything up. I will get to the second half of the characters as soon as I can; I'm going to try to improve my writing with this first. Again, don't take offense if your character didn't show up, it was mainly by order of submission, and then occasionally some characters that I just thought fit. If you had more than one character, I most likely did not introduce them all.**

 **I really need the help of your reviews! Tell me what you think and what I should fix! (I'm super nervous that I didn't do as well as you hoped I would...because I probably didn't...)**

 **~Chikage**

Note: If possible, I need a PM reply from _Aira Aura_ to discuss character personalities, and from _624dongtranvu_ to discuss problems with your submission. Thank you!


	5. Chapter 2: Cooperation Time

Um...why is it March already?

OH MY LORD I AM SO SORRY I SWEAR TO GOD I USUALLY DON'T TAKE THIS LONG—anyway, I'll let you read the chapter first. We can talk later.

Oh, but one fair warning: If your character showed up last chapter, there's a high chance they won't be in this one. But it's not zero. My main goal with this chapter is to get everyone in. In the next few chapters, I'll develop character personalities better and sort them into groups at a time so I can switch focus more easily between them, and hopefully after that you'll know some characters better.

This took longer than I thought because I wanted to try a new introduction style, got stuck, abandoned it for a few weeks, and then came back and scrapped everything. It's because I got distracted when I tried to focus on the previous characters from before, and then the new characters got thrown out, so I threw that idea out. Sorry about that.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I thought. I ramble too much. Anyway, read! You deserve it!

 **Disclaimer is in the first chapter**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Cooperation Time**

"Um….Akagawa? Akagawa Masako-san?"

The girl being called for lifted her head from her phone to face the, er, short teacher in the front of the classroom. Not that she was one to talk. She sat in the back of the room, so she wasn't entirely sure if he could see her in the first place, especially given her own height.

Well, the black cat ears on the hoodie she wore over her uniform would stick out enough.

Masako raised her hand slightly. "She's not here, Sensei."

"Eh? Really?" The teacher blinked and glanced down at his clipboard. "I see…"

"What the hell are you saying, Akagawa?" deadpanned Hanasaka Ayaka from her right.

"Huh?" The teacher looked even more confused than before. "Um…"

Masako burst into controlled laughter, her messy red hair moving all over her thick-rimmed glasses, which framed her blue and gold heterochromia eyes, as she leaned forward against her desk. "Sorry, I'm kidding. It's just for the lolz. Sensei, I'm Akagawa Masako."

"Eh….okay…"

This teacher was doing a lot of stuttering. Masako didn't mind all too much. It made him more fun to tease, anyway.

She placed her phone in the pocket of her yellow-lined black hoodie and faced the front of the classroom, amused. It seemed this year was going to be more interesting than she thought.

* * *

Nishiomi Miya was on her way to school. She had definitely been on her way to school. And yet—where is this?

She glanced around skeptically, not recognizing the streets and buildings around her. She brushed her long chocolate brown hair out of her strange crimson eyes using her sleeve. Despite ordering the smallest possible uniform size, the sleeve was still covering her hands entirely—and by nearly six inches, too! She was always told she was too short, but she didn't think it was that bad. (It was.)

Miya sighed. "I'm not lost, am I?" She brightened quickly. "Nope, I can't be lost! It's fine! Just keep moving and we'll find the school! Yay!" She turned and started heading to the right.

(Note: the school is in the other direction).

* * *

Kyouki Nozomi was bored. She was so bored, she couldn't stand it anymore.

There was no way she was going to class. New teacher or not, sitting in a classroom for an entire day was nothing short of boring. Still, she couldn't find anywhere interesting except school, so she went anyway: to school, but not to class.

Obviously, she wasn't going to miss it. It was her signature prank, after all.

The other classrooms—Class 3-1 through 3-4—were pretty much asking for it.

A sudden loud blare rang throughout the school, and there were several yells and shrieks of surprise. Nozomi burst into silent laughter, doubling over. They fell for it every. Single. Time!

Yes, she had just installed air horns onto the seats of everyone in Class 3-2.

It wasn't like she hated them. It wasn't even a personal feud. She simply felt bored and wanted something to do—so she installed air horns in her free time.

Several classroom doors opened to see what the trouble was, and then closed the moment they saw Nozomi.

 _"It's that prankster, Kyouki."_

 _"Again? Isn't that the seventh time this week?"_

 _"She never gets tired of it, huh?"_

"It never gets old," She muttered cheerfully under her breath.

A hand was suddenly placed on her, and she turned to find her classmate Hanasaka Ayaka standing there with someone behind her.

"Found you, Kyouki."

Nozomi quickly snatched her hand away before the bracelet underneath her uniform sleeve was discovered. "What, Hanasaka? Are you going to arrest me or something?"

"Huh?!" Hanasaka exclaimed. "No! What are you even—?"

"It was a joke," Nozomi interrupted, somewhat amused. Out of the entire class, Hanasaka's reactions were always the dullest.

Hanasaka scowled. "Anyway, you're still dressing like that? Shouldn't you stop?"

She was, obviously, referring to Nozomi's style of dressing like a boy. She couldn't help it—she just liked it that way. Nozomi instinctively felt her short, dark purple hair (containing streaks of black) that was often mistaken for a boy's at the mention, her light purple eyes flickering in annoyance. It was true that if not for the uniform skirt, she could very well be mistaken for a boy, but she didn't need to be reminded of it every day.

"I can look after myself, thanks, Mom," She said sarcastically.

Hanasaka put up her hands. "I'm just saying. Anyway, since you're here anyway, you should meet our new teacher…"

Nozomi looked curiously around her classmate, spotting a short, blue-haired teacher standing behind her. Her light purple eyes narrowed slightly. _Hey….isn't that…_

* * *

"Hey, Hiro-chan!"

It was nearly eight in the morning now, and Tsukiya Arisa was banging on the door of her childhood friend Katsumi Hiro's house. She was fairly irritated, as she had already been doing this for nearly half an hour.

"Come on, wake up! Open the door! It's time for school already!"

Time for a last resort.

"I'm busting down your door!" She announced as she took a step back, as if she were about to kick it down.

"That would be troublesome."

The door ( _finally!_ ) opened, and Hiro stepped out with a yawn. He was in his school uniform with his bag in his hand, but his black hair was still in bed mode, and with one look Arisa could tell that he had worn his several piercings to sleep again.

She rolled her eyes, which flashed silver in the sunlight. Unlike her childhood friend, her own dark violet, nearly black hair was perfectly brushed and pinned back with silver barrettes. Her strict rule-following OCD took over and she grabbed a brush from her bag and struggled with him to try to tame it, but he was quickly able to fight her off.

"Can you just let it go?!"

"No!"

"We're going to be late."

"We're _already_ late, and who's fault do you think that is?" Arisa grumped.

They came to a compromise and started off for school, still bickering along the way. Most of the things that they were arguing about were completely nonsensical and unrelated, but they fought over them all the same.

"Oi, Katsumi," A voice interrupted, and Hiro turned at the sound of his name. This caused Arisa to stop as well. There was a man standing near a dark alleyway, and he looked, with no other way to say it— _downright suspicious_. "There's something we need to talk about."

"Not now," Hiro said impatiently. "It's way too early in the morning."

"Just a minute—"

"What kind of trouble did you get into again?" Arisa asked Hiro suspiciously, not caring that she was interrupting.

He immediately turned away from her. "It's none of your business," He answered smoothly.

Arisa felt annoyed. "Would you please stop doing this to yourself?!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Hiro brushed her off. She said this every single time.

"Also, you!" She pointed at the man. "No smoking on the streets!"

Hiro grabbed Arisa's hand and pulled her away from the man before she could launch her whole spiel of rules.

* * *

Kuroi Fan wasn't really sure why he had come to class in the first place. He probably should have just ditched, but before he knew it, he had ended up at school again for whatever reason.

The teacher had found out that over half the class was gone after attendance, and he seemed confused on how to start a class with only half the number of students. Amane had politely said to him that most people skipped class because the teacher normally didn't care, but Shiota-sensei seemed to mind.

And the door came in, and Nishiomi arrived, with a loud proclamation of "I found the classroom!"

Then she laid eyes on Shiota-sensei, and her crimson eyes immediately lit up. "Master!"

"What?" Shiota-sensei blinked, pointing at himself in confusion.

"You're our teacher, right?" Her naturally pale face was illuminated, she spoke in a cheerful, hyper voice that almost the entire school could hear. She waved her arms around wildly as she talked.

"Yes—"

She didn't let him answer. "You're our teacher but you're short too! Like me! That's soooooo cool, so you're Master!"

Nagisa sweatdropped. "Uhh, that's—"

"Hey, what are we learning today, Master?" The girl asked excitedly as she jumped up and down. "Are we learning something interesting? Can we not start with math? Hey, hey, hey, Master!"

Unable to keep up with the peppy girl's enthusiasm, Nagisa turned to look at the rest of the class standing behind him.

Muramasa, calm as always, lifted her shoulders slightly, saying, "Well, I wouldn't look too much into it, I suppose. She's always like this."

"Yeah. No one really understands her." The sarcastic nekomimi girl Akagawa put in.

They all turned to look at the short girl following this teasing insult, but the girl's crimson eyes were simply fixed on Nagisa.

Akagawa shrugged when she got no reaction.

"I'm Nishiomi Miya!" The peppy short girl yelled out all of a sudden, jumping up to get their attention. "Nishiomi! Miya! Nice to meet you!"

As her squeal increased in volume with every word she said, a majority of the class plugged their ears.

Fan pulled the white headphones from around his neck to his ears, blocking out the noise. To be perfectly honest, Nishiomi was one of the few people that annoyed him. She said whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.

And some part of him might have truthfully been envious of that.

* * *

Amafune Yoh was found sitting on the highest branch of a tree in the park. Well, why not? He found he often liked to find height for some reason.

Since it was early in the morning, there was nearly no one around, and that made it rather peaceful and quiet. He wasn't even really doing anything in particular, just listening to classical music through earbuds and sitting on the tree branch, his green eyes running along the blue sky, brushing his brown hair out of them.

There wasn't much that he was interested in, and class had bored him on the first day. He hadn't attended since then.

"Hey."

Yoh turned when someone spoke to him, hearing clearly despite the earbuds. One of his classmates, Kagaya Kenryuu, climbed the tree also and sat on a branch next to him. His developed muscles that were hidden under a uniform made for an easy climb, and his light blue eyes were smiling with an easy-going feeling as always. The wind ruffled his dark blue hair, that was slightly longer than his chin.

Yoh answered shortly, not really caring why he was there.

So Kagaya went ahead and spoke first. "Are you ditching too?"

"I guess you could put it that way, yeah," Yoh shrugged.

"Did you hear that we have a new teacher, by the way?" Kagaya asked suddenly.

"Maybe. Are you going to go?"

"Nah. I'm too lazy." Kagaya said this coolly. "I'll probably go eventually though."

"I see."

There was a moment of silence—which was broken by a sudden loud noise and tremor that shook the tree.

* * *

"Kusanagi!"

Kusanagi Wakana did a mental facepalm. She normally stayed around the school even if she was ditching class, since if she ever decided she wanted to go back, it would be an easy walk. She would probably head back during break, anyway.

But she was thinking she probably should have left the school—even just for a short while.

Tsukiya came up the hill with Katsumi in tow. No doubt he had tried to ditch halfway through again.

Wakana waited for them to approach with a smile.

"Are you skipping again?" Tsukiya demanded, her silvery eyes staring at her, unblinking.

Wakana didn't reply.

"Whatever, we should head to class!" Tsukiya grabbed her arm and started to drag her along.

Wakana didn't really want to pull away from the girl who was often known as the 'walking book of laws' and cause too much trouble, so she let Tsukiya pull her back towards the classroom without much of a struggle. As they came to the front door, it suddenly burst open, and two people left in a such a rush that they nearly collided.

Lyka gave them an apologetic smile as she dragged her boyfriend out of the school, moving around them after the near collision. "Sorry, Tsukiya! Katsumi! Kusanagi!"

"Where are you going?" Tsukiya called after her. "Class is starting, right?"

"Can't you just let them go?" Katsumi complained, obviously annoyed by her fussing.

Tsukiya rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you just stay quiet. Cutting class isn't a good habit, Hiro."

"You do it frequently enough," Katsumi muttered.

Tsukiya probably would have smacked him if her hands weren't full. "Isn't that your fault?!"

"Don't worry, we'll be back!" Lyka shouted over shoulder. "We're going to look for Anka! Sensei gave us permission too! Come on, Kal!"

"I got it, so you can stop pulling me!" Kal said in irritation.

And so, although she looked rather displeased about it, Wakana returned to class for the day.

* * *

Miyamoto Rin took the day off from school to just pass through the park listening to music. She normally didn't make it a habit to skip school, but occasionally she did it just for a peace of mind. The teacher didn't care, anyway.

With her red hair flowing out behind her, she walked confidently and with her chin held up high. She had her phone attached to black headphones to contrast her bright hair, although they also contrasted sharply with her pale skin that was already catching the attention of some of the few stragglers there. She didn't care about any of that.

Rin suddenly moved her hand and slapped her arm, irritated. Bugs! It was barely spring, and the bugs were already starting to show.

"Um…Oneechan…"

Rin looked down and lowered her headphones around her neck, bending down when a smaller girl approached her. "Is something the matter?"

The girl pointed up, and Rin followed her finger to see a small cat sitting on a tree branch. "Is it stuck?" She asked.

The girl nodded.

Rin grinned. "All right! Leave it to me!" Tucking her phone in her back pocket, she easily scaled the tree. She participated in several different martial arts, so her sense of balance was head and shoulders above average. Within moments, she was up and down, the cat safely returned to ground. She was lucky that it wasn't being uncooperative at all.

The smaller girl beamed as she hugged the cat tightly. "Thank you, Oneechan!"

Rin waved goodbye and then kept walking, sliding the headphones back over her ears. After a few moments, she stopped suddenly before swinging her leg up and bringing a full-force roundhouse kick straight into a nearby tree. She felt a strange sense of satisfaction from the looks of surprise or amazement sent towards her from the force of the kick, which had rattled the tree, but also that she was able to get rid of the bug on her leg that had been bothering her.

 _Better,_ She thought.

"I thought it'd be you, Miyamoto."

Rin nearly got a heart attack when Kagaya Kenryuu suddenly dropped from the tree right in front of her, her brown eyes flickering in annoyance from the surprise. "Kagaya?" She said, recovering quickly. "What were you doing up there?"

Kagaya shrugged. "Well, just exploring, I guess. And what about you?"

Rin gestured. "As you can see, I'm on a walk."

Kagaya laughed. "That's true." He suddenly turned up and called out, "Hey, Amafune! Are you coming down?"

Rin raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Amafune's up there too?"

"Yeah, I ran into him by chance," Kagaya replied as Amafune dropped down from the tree also, brushing his brown hair out of his eyes.

Amafune nodded at Rin. "Miyamoto." He didn't look particularly surprised to see her.

Rin grinned. "Hey. What are the chances—"

Someone interrupted her with a giggle. "Seriously, what are the chances that we'd all run into each other while skipping school?"

Rin turned to find another one of their classmates. "Nanami!"

* * *

"Where would Anka be?" Tenshi Lyka wondered aloud as she scanned her surroundings. "What do you think, Kal?"

Kal shrugged. "I think you should get to know your friends better."

Lyka sighed. "Jeez, can you take one minute and not insult me?"

Kal laughed. "I'm not insulting you."

"Yeah, yeah." With a brief roll of her eyes, she started back down the street. "Anyway, we told Sensei we'd find Anka, so we'd better find him."

"He's probably doing something pointless again," Kal said. "He seems to do that a lot."

"That's not going to help me find him!" Lykatsked. "Whatever, let's start at his house."

Kal silently agreed that this was a good place to start.

So they rang the doorbell to the Kagirinai household (even if Anka was the only one there).

As expected, Anka himself opened the door, black hair still a slight mess. He yawned sleepily and then saw his friends, giving them an indifferent look. When their gasee met, Lyka was still slightly amazed by the way his eyes shifted colors slightly. "Oh, it's Kal and Lyka," Anka said carelessly. "What's up?"

Lyka wanted to shake her boyfriend. "I told you he was sleeping," She said pointedly.

"No, I don't think—" Kal began.

"Oh, I wasn't sleeping," Anka interrupted. "I was playing some video games. I thought I'd take the day off today and give you two lovebirds some time."

Lyka's face turned red. "Wha—?"

Kal laughed. "Told you he was doing something pointless again."

Anka still had a careless look on his face, turning back towards his house. "You two going to come in and join me?"

* * *

Nanami Fiore had left her house not long ago, heading for the school building. She had overslept that morning by accident, though just a little bit. On the way, she took a detour and bypassed the park for whatever reason, not quite wanting to go to school yet.

While she was there, she found a few of her classmates. Much to her amusement, Miyamoto Rin was standing together with Kagaya Kenryuu. There wasn't anything bad about it—it was just interesting, as Kagaya was tanned from travel, and Miyamoto had a skin tone that rivaled her own in terms of paleness.

She approached them with a smile and said, unaware that she had interrupted Miyamoto midsentence, "Seriously, what are the chances that we'd all run into each other while skipping school?"

Miyamoto turned. "Nanami!"

Nanami beamed. "Hey! I assume you are skipping school, right?"

She got three different answers.

"I'm just taking a walk," Miyamoto replied a little flippantly.

"I got lazy," Kagaya offered.

"Maybe," Amafune responded vaguely.

Nanami and Kagaya both laughed.

"So? Are you guys going back to school?" Miyamoto asked curiously.

She also got three different answers to her question.

"I was on my way now," Nanami admitted.

"If I ever feel like it," Kagaya responded carelessly.

"Maybe," Amafune shrugged.

Miyamoto sighed. "This could be laughable."

Kagaya thought before suggesting, "Then how about we all go ahead and head over together?"

Miyamoto gave him a look. "Why?"

"I mean, why not?"

* * *

"Aniki."

Tsukamoto Kazuya lifted his head slightly when there was a knock on the door. The room was dark with the curtains drawn and the lights off, but he had always found it comforting. An hour had already passed since he had just closed himself inside the small room (one of the few small rooms in his ridiculously large house), and now his little brother knocked on the door suddenly.

"Shouldn't you go to school?"

"I don't want to," Kazuya answered simply. "It's too bright outside."

"Come on…" there was a sigh. "Anyway, I have to go. See if I care what you do."

Footsteps faded in the distance, and Kazuya returned to silence.

It was like this every day. He didn't care about school. His class would probably never care about him either.

His cell phone rang suddenly and his green eyes flicked towards it briefly before seeing a number he didn't know. After a few moments, he got annoyed and answered it, even if he didn't say anything.

"Hello, I'm your new teacher, Shiota Nagisa," A voice said. "Tsukamoto Kazuya, right?"

Kazuya didn't reply, his pale blue hair covering his eyes as he listened to the voice on the phone. This is a pain….it's too sunny outside…

Despite complaining in his mind he grabbed his army green hoodie and uniform.

 _Maybe_ _it wouldn't be so bad to see one day_ _though._

* * *

"Masahiro-oniichan!"

Sano Masahiro looked down when one of the young, kindergarten girls came up to him carrying a cat.

"Look, a cat!" She beamed as she held the strangely submissive cat out. "An oneechan got it down for me!"

"That's nice," Masahiro said simply.

The girl looked like she was expecting more, so when Masahiro didn't say any more, she was obviously disappointed. She ran off to find another caretaker.

"Jeez, Masahiro, you could care to show a little emotion," the caretaker of the orphanage teased. "They're still young, after all. They won't know how to react otherwise."

Masahiro shrugged. "Sorry."

The manager sighed. "You never change….don't you have school?"

"It's not important," Masahiro muttered.

"It is important!" She said impatiently. Somehow, the conversation had come to this once again.

Masahiro avoided her gaze, swinging his emerald green eyes around the buildings by habit. He tugged a little bit on the wristband around his wrist impulsively.

Irritated now, the manager reached forward and put both her hands on his face, forcing him to face her and nearly knocking off his glasses. "Masahiro! I said you need to go to school! Got it?"

He pulled back, brushing back his dark blue hair. "Why should I—"

"Or don't come back!"

There were a few moments of silence as he silently debated which would be worse, before he sighed and turned. "Fine."

"Good!" The manager nodded and watched him go.

The little girl with the cat came up and waved. "Bye bye, Masahiro-oniichan!"

Masahiro headed towards Gokuroku High, letting out a breath. _What a pain._

* * *

"Hey," Yozora Naoi smiled despite his lack of breath as he pulled open the door of Classroom 3-5. "Sorry I'm late."

All eyes turned to him, which made him feel a little uncomfortable, but he ignored it and headed to his seat next to his friend Muramasa Ran with the smile still on his face.

Ran looked towards him. "Did you oversleep again?"

Even though her face was strangely indifferent as she asked this, Naoi could hear the skepticism in her voice.

"Maybe," He answered vaguely. "My sister was having some trouble."

"So half and half," Ran concluded simply.

"Pretty much," He smiled, and then realized everyone was still looking at them. "Oh, I'm sorry." He stood back up, leaving his bag on the table, and walked up to the short but unfamiliar person standing at the front of the classroom. "Are you our teacher?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm Shiota Nagisa," The teacher answered, surprised to be addressed all of a sudden.

"Nice to meet you," Naoi gave him his best smile. "I'm Yozora Naoi. Let's have a good year."

"Ah, all right," Nagisa accepted Naoi's outstretched hand with a slight hint of surprise before opening his attendance book as Naoi returned to his seat.

"Jeez, stop being such a ladykiller," Ran said as Naoi sat down again, taking Nagisa's moment of hesitation as such.

"Huh?" Naoi blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean—" Ran started.

"Umm…" Nagisa interrupted them. "I'm a guy."

"—?"

* * *

"I lost again…?!"

Raikatuji Yukio complained, running a hand through his long, dyed blond hair. He was at the arcade, frustrated over continuous losses. But each one was cutting it close, so he had gone for a retry over and over again.

Obviously, it wasn't working. The worst part was that he didn't even know who he was losing to. But he went one more round, attacking with full force. After a few minutes of aggressiveness, the screen flashed and the words 'YOU WIN' popped up.

Yukio felt a sense of achievement. "Ha! Take that!" He boasted. "In your face!"

"You were totally losing earlier, though," Someone nearby commented.

"Shut up!" Yukio demanded. "I won now, so it's fine!"

"Yeah, sure."

Yukio rolled his eyes in annoyance. So, now that's done. What to do?

"Raikatuji?"

Yukio looked up when the person on the other side of the console stood up, and he groaned mentally. I was losing to him?

The opponent was a familiar face. To be precise, a classmate.

Akutagawa Hirokazu. His shaggy brown hair was mostly covering his reddish brown eyes, which made Yukio wonder how in the world he had been playing like that.

"I was losing to a guy like him…!" Yukio's sense of achievement was gone, immediately replaced by depression.

"It was a nice match," Akutagawa offered. "But you're too aggressive. All offense and no defense isn't a strategy…"

Yukio was too busy mulling over his defeat to listen or to care, and both of them were absorbed in their own worlds without listening to one another. Finally, Yukio stood up and yelled, "I'll win next time for sure!"

"Sorry for rambling," Akutagawa blinked, obviously startled by the sudden outburst.

"Quit yelling!" The shop owner demanded, and they were both thrown out of the arcade.

"Tch," Yukio muttered when he hadn't been able to fight his way into staying. "This is all your fault, Akutagawa."

"I'm sorry," His classmate answered humbly.

Yukio paused. "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you would be at school."

Akutagawa shrugged. "I guess I just didn't feel in that mood. I was going to go back later in the day, anyway."

Yukio's rage and frustration of losing blended together. "I won't lose to you."

"Huh?" Akutagawa blinked, clearly confused.

"I definitely won't lose to you!"

With this aggressive statement, Yukio stormed towards the school. The one thing he hated was losing. To anyone, really.

Akutagawa followed him anyway. "And what exactly are we competing over, again…?"

"Shut up!" Yukio snapped, even though he knew it was true.

* * *

Shinsou Ayato saw an angel.

On his way to school, once he had finished speaking with all of the ladies that he was familiar with, he saw out of the corner of his eye his classmate Mikanegi Meiko. Mikanegi was one of the girls that he had attempted to talk to most, with her long pale blond hair, lavender eyes, porcelain skin and doll-like figure—although, she was right up there with Tenshi Lyka (who was a literal angel, but unfortunately she already had a boyfriend), Amane Ameko, Kamiya Kazuharu, Miyamoto Rin, Nanami Fiore, and pretty much every other girl in the class.

He felt lucky to be in a class full of pretty girls.

"Good morning, Mikanegi," He said as he approached her, making sure that his orange hair was perfected and out of his silver eyes. "Can I walk you to school?"

Mikanegi walked right past him without seeming to notice, but ten seconds later she stopped and turned around again with a smile. "Good morning, Shinsou-kun," She greeted without seeming to have heard what he said. She was somewhat known for tuning out of situations.

Ayato didn't particularly mind, following her. Her smile was pretty, but he wasn't affected by it much. "Say, Mikanegi, how about a cup of—"

"Cake," Mikanegi interrupted suddenly. "Dolls. Sparkly. The sun is bright…"

Ayato still didn't have a clue how her conversations went. That didn't bother him in the slightest, though. There were times where they could actually talk smoothly.

"Teacher…" Mikanegi remembered suddenly. She turned her head and seemed to remember that Ayato was behind her, so she smiled and asked, "What do you think our new teacher is like, Shinsou-kun?"

Ayato smiled, seizing the moment. "Well, what do you want them to be like?"

Mikanegi shrugged carelessly. "I don't really care."

Well, there goes that.

Ayato opened the classroom door and stepped aside to allow Mikanegi to enter first, and she did. The teacher at the front of the classroom smiled upon seeing them, and Ayato stopped in his tracks.

 _A female teacher? No, wait…_

"Glad you could make it!" The teacher said. "Could I get your names?"

When Ayato didn't respond, from the second row, Kaminaga Masaki spoke. "Shinsou, before you say anything—"

"What, is the teacher out of your ability level?" Akagawa teased from where she sat, interrupting Kaminaga.

Before Ayato could respond, Shiota-sensei yelled impatiently, "Akagawa! For the last time, _I am a guy!_ "

Akagawa burst into laughter at Ayato's suddenly confused face. Then he sighed. _Well, of_ _course it wasn't beyond her to pull that kind of joke._ It was a good thing he hadn't said anything yet.

* * *

"Ahem. Is everyone here?" Nagisa said, looking around. He felt frustrated about what had just happened. _Even though I cut my hair…!_ "Then I'll take attendance one more time…"

After going through the roster of 28 once more, he snapped the attendance book shut, relieved.

He smiled. "Good, we're all here."

"So what are you going to be teaching?" Doumoto demanded.

"Now now," Nagisa said calmly. He felt strangely tranquil now that the entire class was present. Of course, it may have been thanks to what he had planned. "There's somewhere I'd like to go."

Of course, Nishiomi was the first one to react to this, squealing excitedly from her front seat. "Ooh, ooh, is it a field trip? Are we going on a field trip, Master?!"

"Nishiomi, don't jump on your chair!" Tsukiya exclaimed. Nishiomi pouted. "Also, you're too loud! And where the heck did you get Master?"

"Because Master is short! Like me! But he's a cool teacher! So he's Master!" Nishiomi chirped.

Tsukiya sighed and gave up. As usual, the short girl did not make any sense at all. "Anyway, just sit down!"

"Well, something like that," Nagisa agreed, interrupting them.

"Where are we going?" Keda asked when her curiosity got the best of her.

Nagisa smiled. "My old junior high: Kunugigaoka's Class E mountain campus."

* * *

HEADS UP: If my rant is too long, PLEASE AT LEAST READ/DO THE PART IN BOLD! Thanks! I'd love to hear from people who don't have characters also!

So I'd like to apologize. Again. One of my number one rules is usually "don't write unless I have inspiration." Because otherwise it turns out like crap. But as you can see, that's not working out very well, especially with characters that aren't mine and I can't fantasize about. So I'm changing that—from here on out, I'm going to try to update at least every other week, though it'll vary depending on school work. And if I have no good ideas, I'll put together some kind of nonsense, maybe have someone help me edit it, and move on. Yeah.

Anywho, that's done and over with, so now I can get to the exciting parts! Yay~ I have some good ideas planned for the next few parts. So please review how I did with your characters! Like I said in my rant before, if your character does not talk, I especially had trouble expressing them in this dialogue-filled-chapter-for-the-sake-of-plot-development/character-introduction. But hopefully I'll do better in future chapters.

That being said, please tell me how this chapter was! I know it was rushed. I know it's just a bunch of nonsense thrown together. Hopefully it'll get better. If you have any advice on how to help me fix it, please do. It's a tad longer than usual because I dawdled too much in the beginning of the chapter. I've given up on keeping characters anonymous, so **I'd like you to include a list of the following in your review please:**

 **1) How well I did in portraying your character (within both chapters, apologize if there's not enough screen time) on a scale of 1-10 (1 being worst, 10 being best), and WHY (so I can improve).**

 **2) What you think of the story as a whole (not much to go off of right now for this though)**

 **3) What you think of other characters (which ones interest you most)**

 **4) From the information given in these past two chapters, a list of people (at least two, but if you have interrelated characters don't include those) that you think might get along well with your character and a list of people (at least one) that your character wouldn't get along with**

That'll help a lot if you could! Thanks! Again, I'd love to hear some feedback from those without characters too!

Hope to see you again soon this time!  
~Chikage

PS. Incidentally, I recently found out why I might be having so much trouble with this. My friend just told me that in all my stories she's read, I've always focused on plot development over character development, and my characters never go anywhere. That might be why. This might be good practice for me...

PPS. I'M REALLY TO SORRY TO lacrimanightmare, WHOSE CHARACTER I SOMEHOW MANAGED TO MISS. So that makes 28 characters, 14 girls and 14 boys. If I missed your character, PLEASE TELL ME NOW! Sorry! Thank you!

Sorry for making you listen to me ramble.


	6. Chapter 3: Game Time

So sorry for the delay again! I know I said two weeks, but getting in replies to my questions and character analysis's took me longer than I thought, and then I had to get it all sort out and plan teams before I could actually start writing...

Well, be happy! It's finally done! And I bombed a lit test to get it out even just one week earlier lol. Can't blame anyone but me for that though.

A few notes before we begin:

I decided to go with given names in the end, so no matter the perspective, the characters will be referred to by their FIRST NAMES in the narratives. Surnames will still come up in dialogue, so it would help if you relatively have a sense of who's who. But we still have time for that.

VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO MaryAllen who helped me out every time I was stuck! :)

...Actually, I better say this one after the chapter. Enjoy first, you guys deserve it! :) (It's long again! Really long, even longer than last time! Started writing and couldn't stop :P)

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Game Time**

"Hey, how much further are we going to go?"

Nagisa could hear the students complaining behind him, but he didn't pay much attention to it. But it was to be expected: these students weren't used to walking up a mountain every day, like he was.

"We're almost to the top," He reassured them as he climbed the last bit. It felt somewhat strange to have to slow his pace down for the students, as he was used to racing his friends up the mountain using their assassination skills, but he did so nonetheless. He was relieved to see that both the school building and woods were in tip-top condition, thanks to the care of Class 3-E.

Some of the students immediately collapsed on the floor, panting breathlessly, while others looked completely unaffected. The one who was worst off was Kazuya, who looked fairly angered and looked like he was trying to hide his face behind something. They had all changed into gym uniforms, so they weren't afraid of getting it dirty. It seemed that Nagisa would have his hands full during physical education class.

"Go ahead and rest a little," He instructed, looking around.

"Ah! Nagisa-kun!"

Nagisa turned when a familiar voice called out cheerfully. He found his classmate Kurahashi Hinano coming towards them wearing her nature touring outfit, a bag on her shoulder. She hadn't changed at all since middle school years—except that he now had to look up much more to address her.

"Kurahashi!" He greeted her as she came towards him with a smile. "Are you using the place right now?"

"No, my nature tour doesn't start until the afternoon," She answered, green eyes filled with curiosity as usual. "Is that your new class, Nagisa?"

"Yeah," Nagisa nodded. "I was hoping to do a little activity here."

"I see," Kurahashi replied. "I was just checking out the path one more time, so I'm done here."

"Don't you have work?" Nagisa asked her.

"We have today off, so…" Kurahashi checked her watch. "Oh, I should get back! I promised Megu that I would meet her at the station! See ya, Nagisa!" She called as she ran down the mountain.

"Yeah!" Nagisa agreed as she faded in the distance.

"Was that a former classmate just now?" Hanasaka asked curiously as she sat up. Mountain climbing was one of the few things she didn't do.

"Yeah, from junior high," Nagisa responded.

"Master, Master! What are we doing here, Master!?" Nishiomi, however, seemed as hyper as usual.

Nagisa gave the bouncing short girl a smile. "Well, we're going to play a game."

"A game?"

Another voice interrupted.

"You're here, Nagisa."

"Long time no see."

Nagisa turned again to see two more of his classmates, whose expressions were as poker-faced as usual. But both wore a small smile nonetheless.

"Hayami! Chiba!"

Hayami Rinka's emerald green eyes were slightly unreadable like always, and she had her orange hair pulled in her typical twintails resting on her shoulders, though it had grown in length since her middle school days. Chiba Ryuunosuke still had his eyes covered by his long black hair and a hat pulled over.

Both wore casual clothes that allowed for easy movement, almost like the training outfit Karasuma had given them in junior high.

"We brought what you asked for," Chiba said. He and Hayami each pulled forward a large black, transportable box.

"It was a little bit of a struggle to get it up here though," Hayami admitted.

"Thanks so much!" Nagisa said, heading towards them. As he opened the boxes, the students in his class all suddenly got wide eyes.

"R-Real guns?!" They exclaimed.

"Huh?" Nagisa blinked, like he had forgotten they were there. Then he insisted, "Wait! Hold on a sec! These are _paintball guns_ , okay?!"

" _Huh?!_ "

"And these knives are rubber, too," Chiba remarked, pulling one from the other box.

"Don't worry, there's no way we'd have something that could harm you," Hayami agreed.

"Wait….don't tell me we're…"

Nagisa smiled, turning to face them with a rubber knife in his hand. "Well, I thought it'd be fun to play a game, don't you think?"

This time, the class was split half and half with their responses.

" _Paintball_?"

" _Paintball?!_ "

Half tinged with a mix of disbelief and shock, half tinged with a mix of excitement and sudden interest.

"So, for the time being, I'll start by splitting you into groups…" Nagisa thought briefly and then turned. "All right."

* * *

The teams ended up as such:

Team Red - Shinigami Kal, Shinsou Ayato, Tsukamoto Kazuya, Tenshi Lyka, Nishiomi Miya, Miyamoto Rin, Yozora Naoi.

Team Blue - Amane Ameko, Kamiya Kazuharu, Sano Masahiro, Doumoto Jun, Hanasaka Ayaka, Raikatuji Yukio, Roux Keda.

Team Purple - Akagawa Masako, Amafune Yoh, Kagaya Kenryuu, Kagirinai Anka, Kyouki Nozomi, Fiore Nanami, Muramasa Ran.

Team Green - Akutagawa Hirokazu, Katsumi Hiro, Kaminaga Masaki, Kusanagi Wakana, Kuroi Fan, Tsukiya Arisa, Mikanegi Meiko.

* * *

"Jeez, why can't we be on the same team as Anka?" Lyka huffed. "It's not fair!"

"Well, nothing we can do about it," Kal shrugged. "You'll get to play against him, right?"

"But that's…" Lyka contemplated this.

"Hello, angel," Ayato was suddenly there, lifting one of Lyka's pale hands to his mouth. "If I could protect you—"

Lyka immediately yanked away and moved behind Kal, who looked like he was trying his very hardest not to strangle the class flirt right then and there. "If you go near Lyka one more time, I swear I'll snap your neck in two."

"Just do it now," Lyka said only half jokingly as she turned with a swish of her blond hair to find the other two girls in the group. "Hey, Nishiomi! Miyamoto!"

"Now, now," Naoi pried between them, splitting them up. "Calm down, you two. Shinsou, you know better than to go for Tenshi-san."

"But—" Faced with Kal's murderous glare, Ayato shrank back reluctantly. "...Sorry."

Naoi sighed briefly. He turned to look at Kazuya, who was standing in the shade of a tree off to the side, and walked over. "Tsukamoto, are you all right? Do you need some water?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Kazuya murmured as he turned his head slightly. "The sunlight just bothers me a bit."

"I see…" Naoi thought. "Well if it gets too bad, let me know and I'll tell the teacher. Why don't we all think of a plan together for now?"

"—I'm so excited!" Miya squealed, jumping up and down uncontrollably.

"You've said that three times now," Rin laughed. "But it's true that you wouldn't find any other teacher that would do something like this, so I'm also kind of excited."

"Right, we should all just enjoy ourselves!" Lyka agreed.

"All right, bring it on!" Rin declared, placing a hand on her arm as if to show off her strength.

"Oh, right, Miyamoto does martial arts, right?" Lyka asked curiously.

"Really?! Really?! That's cool! I do karate too!" Miya interrupted before Rin could reply.

Both girls couldn't help but look again at her short stature and thin limbs. Miya didn't seem to realize, simply tilting her head innocently.

Lyka laughed and ruffled the girl's hair. "All right! Shall we go get our weapons?"

"In a way, that sounds off," Rin joked, and they all laughed.

* * *

"Why do I have to be in a group with someone like _her_?" Jun complained.

Ayaka rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "It's not like I want to be in a group with you either, Doumoto. Well, there's no good complaining will get you."

"Shut up, bitch."

Ayaka's blue eyes swung around in a heavy glare as she cracked her knuckles. "I think I heard something annoying just now."

"Don't fight!" Kazuharu interrupted, stepping between them. "Shouldn't we be working together?"

"You must be kidding me!" Ayaka and Jun hollered at the same time. "Me, work with this guy / girl?!"

"Yup!" Kazuharu just nodded her head with a smile. "We're a team, aren't we?"

"Just this once," Keda interceded before either of them could respond again. "Can you call a temporary truce?"

"We're not expecting you to be best friends forever," Ameko added, though she seemed to be rather patient with the whole situation. Although, the one who was the least bothered was definitely Masahiro, who was barely even paying attention to the childish spat.

"Hey, your arguing isn't going to get anywhere!" Yukio interrupted. "Let's just focus on the game for now! And then you can break all the bones you want, all right?"

"Shut the hell up, Raikatuji!" Ayaka and Jun demanded.

Yukio looked ticked off by this. "What was that, huh? Are you looking down on me?"

"You wanna go?!" Jun yelled.

Yukio seemed as if he had no interest in a brawl with his classmate, but his pride wouldn't let him back down as he glared back as menacingly as possible.

Kazuharu looked up at Keda with a sigh. "What are we going to do with them, really? They're like children."

Keda giggled a little. "You're right. I feel like we should stop them, but…"

"It's fine, we can just leave them be," Kazuharu said dismissively. Even the friendliest of the group had given up on playing mediator.

"But…" Keda looked hesitant. It almost seemed that she was trying to find a way to sympathize with them.

Kazuharu laughed. "We should go get ready for the game ourselves, don't you think?"

"I guess you're right," Keda agreed finally.

"Amane!" Kazuharu ran up to the girl standing off to the side. "We're going to go get our weapons now!"

"All right," Ameko nodded and answered in a soft voice, "I'll come with you then."

"Okay!" Kazuharu said happily. "Sano-kun should come too!"

"Yeah," Masahiro said crisply, but nothing more. His green eyes wandered around, examining the mountaintop around them.

Kazuharu tilted her head, like she was searching for words, and then finally spoke again with her usual cheerful voice. "Aren't you excited though? It's my first time playing in a paintball game!"

"I guess."

"I think we should start getting weapons and coming up with a plan," Ameko interrupted hesitantly.

"You're right," Keda agreed. "We don't have any idea on how to start yet. For now, we should probably break those three up—"

"Hey!" Kazuharu yelled out as she ran towards Ayaka, Jun, and Yukio. "We're thinking of a plan!"

Finally, Masahiro spoke up voluntarily, though his eyes kept wandering. "I think I might have an idea or two."

"That's great," Ameko smiled a little.

Keda felt a sense of relief. It seemed like things were finally starting in the right direction. Now for the game itself….She also felt a smile creeping onto her face.

* * *

"So?" Masako clicked the barrel of a rifle gun in place. She had selected it since it seemed to be something that suit her, though she wasn't sure how well she'd use it yet. "What's our plan, go all out in a suicide frontal attack?"

"That's not right, Akagawa," Nozomi interceded.

Masako shrugged mischievously. "Doesn't hurt to try."

"It'd be better if you said something like we should go for full obliteration," Nozomi declared confidently.

Masako fired back only half sarcastically, "That's not even funny, Kyouki. Plus, we're supposed to make it happen anyway, right?"

"Hey, hey," Kenryuu interrupted with a laugh. "I love this conversation as much as you guys do, but I think we need an actual plan here."

"This isn't even a conversation," Nanami stated bluntly.

"I agree with Kagaya," Ran said calmly. She raised the knife that she held in her hand. "It's not every day a chance like this comes around, right?"

"As usual, you're taking this rather lightly," Masako commented.

"I'm really excited," Ran answered without the slightest change in emotion. She sensed that Masako was trying to mess with her, and quickly averted the subject again. "Akagawa, what are you going to do with that rifle?"

Masako tilted her head, heterochromia eyes glinting in the sun. "Obviously I'm going to melt it into scraps and dump it on someone's head," She replied sarcastically.

"Are you trying to kill someone?" Nozomi exclaimed, looking exasperated. "It doesn't work that way. Pranks are supposed to be subtle and hilarious!"

"Like planting airhorns on the bottom of seats," Masako responded.

"Or bringing a camel to school!" Nozomi agreed. Suddenly, her expression changed and she smiled. "Ooh, I should use a camel in this match!"

"You know how to get a camel? Seriously?" Kenryuu looked genuinely interested.

"From Italy," Masako put in with a sarcastic laugh, looking pointedly at Nanami.

"Italy does _not_ have camels," Nanami joined the conversation. "I've seen foxes though."

Masako had a look of slight—what was it, disappointment?—from their reactions.

"Oh yeah, Nanami, you're half Italian, aren't you?" Kenryuu remembered.

"Yup," Nanami agreed. "I lived there before I came here, so I'd know. Kagaya, are you interested in Italy?"

"A little," Kenryuu admitted.

"Hm, I see. But really, I'm excited for this game. It's my first time doing something like this!" Nanami said excitedly.

Nozomi tilted her head curiously. "Is it just me or are you a little different than you normally are?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Nanami responded frivolously.

Kenryuu looked towards Anka, who had yet to say anything. "Hey, Kagirinai. What about you?"

"...Ah," Anka finally turned his gaze away from the scenery around them, tuning back into the conversation. "Sorry. I guess it'll be an interesting game."

"What, are you no good without that class couple?" Masako teased.

Anka shrugged. "It doesn't matter either way. I mean, it's not like I had a choice, so….oh, but I guess I am little wary about being on the other side of Kal's plans."

"Hey, is Amafune still not done yet?" Ran commented suddenly as she looked towards the weapons' boxes. Even as she asked this, she was already starting to think of tactics that she could use in the game. Naturally, none of this penetrated her poker face though.

Yoh ran his golden eyes over the weapon choices, frowning slightly. It wasn't that he was looking forward to the game, nor was it that he really didn't want to do it, nor did he have mixed feelings whatsoever. He just didn't care either way.

"Do you need help, Amafune?"

Yoh looked up when Nagisa approached him, pulling his headphones down from over his ears absently. He had traded out his earbuds, since he didn't want the wires getting tangled. "Maybe."

Nagisa smiled—

"Why not try a rifle?"

"Hayami!" Nagisa turned in surprise when the girl appeared next to him, holding the gun in her hands.

"It's just a feeling," Hayami said simply.

* * *

If having to deal with her troublemaker childhood friend Hiro was enough to give her a headache, then Arisa felt like she was going to get a migraine.

First was the infamous hooky player, Kusanagi Wakana. Every time, she would be either found wandering around the school during quiz period or making a short trip to a nearby convenience store. However, as she seemed rather interested in the game and wouldn't be going anywhere for awhile, it didn't look too big an issue.

And then there was Kuroi Fan, who Arisa could barely even _stand_ to look at. Even in his gym uniform, he broke more dress code rules than she could imagine, and she could literally list them off the top of her head by now. Add on the fact that he hardly ever talked, and it was difficult to imagine what was going on in his head. But then, the same would apply for Wakana as well.

Akutagawa Hirokazu definitely didn't break any major rules—but sometimes he'd go off in his own world as he talked for long periods of time, which was what he was doing right now as he talked about possible battle plans they could use. Frankly speaking, it was annoying.

As for Kaminaga Masaki, Arisa realized that he was actually one of the very few people she hadn't talked to before. It seemed like he was kind of just there, and easy to miss, too.

And Mikanegi Meiko—where to even begin? The blond girl was currently staring with a strange, fervent passion at the rubber knife that she held, mentioning something about stalkers under her breath.

"Arisa," Hiro started as he sensed her reaching her snapping point, "don't think too much into it."

"Right," Arisa exhaled to dismiss her anger. She didn't want to end up doing something she'd regret.

"Tsukiya," Hirokazu said suddenly, halting his rambling midway. "Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble. More importantly, I think we should take a look at strong points and weak points."

"Yeah, you're right," Arisa agreed.

"Well, that's on you guys," Hiro said nonchalantly.

"We're going to plan?" Meiko tilted her head curiously, finally pulling her blue eyes away from the knife. "Why don't we all just do whatever?"

"We can't win that way," Hirokazu answered, but he could already tell that she had no interest whatsoever in the game entirely.

Meiko seemed to lose interest in the conversation (as she usually did), holding up the black gun in her other hand. "Dollhouse…?"

"Then what about you three?" Hirokazu asked, turning towards the remaining three to seek their opinion.

Wakana simply nodded once, calmly, without a word, but it was evident from her dark brown eyes that she was excited—well, at least, more excited than usual. Which was true, since she typically enjoyed survival-type games. Even then, she wasn't about to speak her mind about it.

On the other hand, Fan wasn't even paying attention, looking down at the knife that he held in his hand. There might have been a few things he could have said about the situation—but then, he really would rather not. He had a slight internal debate for a short while and in the end didn't say anything like usual. It didn't matter, anyway. He reached for the headphones around his neck instinctively, but one glare from Arisa immediately stopped him, even though he scowled slightly.

Masaki thought briefly before answering simply, "I mean, either way is fine." He wasn't really sure how he was supposed to answer, or how they were expecting to handle the situation. But since Arisa and Hirokazu seemed to know what they were doing, he went ahead and let them take the reins.

"So….whatever?" Meiko looked up at Arisa and Hirokazu suddenly, holding the knife and gun in front of her face. "Assassination stuff?"

"No—"

It was almost unclear who spoke, since Meiko deemed the conversation unimportant again after that and returned to her own little fantasy, nodding to herself like everything had been officially decided. Fan also seemed careless, but he and Wakana both turned to look over the mountaintop critically.

Arisa felt her finally straw snap as she gave into her grumpiness. "Could you guys be serious just for a little bit?"

"Sorry, Tsukiya, Akutagawa, but I think it's been decided to do whatever," Masaki told them sheepishly.

* * *

"Nagisa." Hayami and Chiba approached their former classmate, seeing him deep in thought. "How do you want to do this?"

"Hmm…" Nagisa thought. "Well, I don't want it to turn out too violent, but…" He recalled the crazy antics that had already happened that day, and then sighed.

"You sure have it rough, don't you?" Both of them sweatdropped.

"Well," Chiba commented, "either way our restoration bill is going up."

"S-Sorry…."

"Don't worry about it. We're not doing anything with it anyway."

Nagisa turned to look at the group of twenty-eight students chatting in their separate groups.

"Doesn't this kind of feel like when middle school, when we played against each other?" Hayami remarked suddenly. It was slightly strange to hear her speaking her mind so straight-forwardly.

"Yeah," Chiba agreed. "Or cops and robber with Karasuma-sensei."

Hayami gave a small, rare smile. "Really does."

"That's it!" Nagisa said suddenly. "Thanks, Hayami, Chiba!"

"Huh? Wait a—Nagisa!" Chiba called after him, but Nagisa had already ran forward to gather his class.

 _"Shiota-sensei!"_

"Uwaah!" Nagisa stiffened suddenly when a voice blared out at twenty times the normal volume behind him, nearly jumping out of his skin. He rubbed his ears painfully and turned, recognizing the girl—yes, girl—from the air horn incident. "K-Kyouki-san….right?"

Nozomi doubled over with laughter, holding her sides. Now that she had changed out of the uniform skirt, it was even harder to tell that she was a girl. "Yeah. Sorry." She apologized without the slightest bit of regret. In fact, she wiped her eyes as she spoke. "I was just wondering if you needed a megahorn." She held up the megahorn she had just used.

"Um….why do you have that on you?" Nagisa sweatdropped.

"I wanted to prank someone with it," Nozomi said nonchalantly. "Want it?"

"..."

* * *

—And the rules were established:

"This is going to be a mix of paintball, as well as cops and robbers. When you get hit with a color other than your own—be it with a knife or a gun—the jail cell will be at the peak of the mountain, near the classroom building."

"That's a classroom?"

"There will be a spot that's been designated for you to stay at. Other players from your team are allowed to tag you back in. Be aware that it is possible for you to get hit on the way there. Physical violence is allowed—however, know your limits and don't go overboard. School rules still apply while we play, understood?"

"Yes, Sensei."

"Other than that, you may use the whole mountain however you like. The team still standing in half an hour wins."

 **~Let's start the game!~**

* * *

As expected, a majority of the teams went their own separate ways right after the game started. But then, until now, pretty much the entire class had been skipping, so there were fairly few people on extremely good terms with one another, aside from those who were either naturally friendly (a number capable of being counted on one hand) or those who were childhood friends.

Nagisa watched the scene from the peak of the mountain along with Hayami and Chiba, at the jail cell where the view was the clearest. He had along a pair of binoculars just in case, but after his sniping practice from the assassination classroom, he hardly needed them. Not to mention, there happened to be the class's top two snipers by his side.

"They're pretty good, those kids," Chiba commented briefly.

"Yeah," Nagisa watched them hopping all over the mountains, swinging through tree branches and taking shortcuts through narrow cracks between the trees. Heck, he didn't even know how to climb a tree until Karasuma-sensei had taught them, and these high schoolers were here running around the mountain like monkeys.

"SENSEI!"

Nagisa winced and swung his gaze around, looking for the source of the voice. It was girl's voice, but he was still yet to place his finger on every single student's name. He found a girl with blue-amber hair on a tree about halfway down the mountain, and—as expected—a megahorn in her hand.

Nanami's violet eyes were curious as she spoke into the megaphone, calling out as loudly as she could. Next to her, Nozomi snickered to herself. The two girls were hiding in the branches of the tree, looking up at the classroom. Both of their knives were coated in purple paint, showing they were on the same team.

Nagisa gestured for her to keep going.

"ARE WE ALLOWED TO FORM ALLIANCES?" She called out. It wasn't like she was actually going to make one or anything—she was just curious of how many teams she'd have to be cautious about.

Nagisa thought this over, and decided not to, as it would get very messy very quickly.

As he answered her, Hayami and Chiba both deadpanned mentally, _She had another one_.

As the instructors watched, the girls were fired at from below all of a sudden and they laughed as they ran away.

* * *

"Miyamoto, could I—"

"Oh, Shinsou, heads up!" Rin dropped down from the branch she had been resting on, grabbing the other boy's arm and pulling him behind a tree as purple paint hit the trunk beside them. "Careful, I can tell is Akagawa a good shot," She noted.

"Thank you," Ayato said finally, surprised. It was unclear whether it was that Rin was being so friendly to him (a majority of the girls hardly were), that she had helped him, or the fact that both of the red haired girls of the class were in the same place at once by chance.

Rin tried to peek out, but Masako had jumped to a nearby tree branch with her rifle in hand and fired again the moment her head emerged. Rin was barely able to dodge thanks to her fast reflexes from her martial arts practice.

She looked down at the gun briefly and threw the thought out altogether within moments. "Shinsou, are you any good with your gun?"

"I've never tried," Ayato answered honestly, sensing it was _probably_ not the time to hit on her.

There would be plenty of time later, anyway.

"What's the matter, scared?" Masako called.

"Now would probably be a good—" Rin started.

Suddenly, Masako spun around on her toes, somehow maintaining her balance on the branch as she leaped backwards agilely and landed on a separate branch.

Kazuya was there, with a gun in hand, having fired once at her. "Well, I'm not the best shot, but I figured even I couldn't miss from that distance," He said, with a slight hint of hesitation but also of triumph.

Masako raised her rifle, but Rin took this opportunity to run forward and raise her leg, kicking straight forward into the tree as hard as she could.

"Haaahhh!"

Masako was barely able to leap back in time, stumbling a little when her foothold shook. She missed the branch and landed back on the floor, crouched defensively. She whistled. "Bet you could take out a stampede of elephants, you think?"

Rin smiled, looking proud. "Maybe."

Right then, Ayato moved in with his knife hesitantly. Masako slung her rifle over her shoulder as she pulled out her own to defend herself, the two rubber knives clashing in the middle. She seemed to be stable with both weapons, though she took a step back due to Ayato's overpowering strength.

Rin tried to take the opportunity to attack from the side with her knife, but Masako pushed both of them aside and grabbed a tree branch to swing herself back up.

She pushed up her black framed glasses, heterochromia eyes glistening mischievously. "Come on now, don't team up on a girl, right?" Then she vanished through the treetops.

Kazuya let out a breath as he leaned back against a tree, soaking in the shade. It seemed he had pretty much given up after that first intervention. "Ugh, I hate the sun."

"Thanks though, Tsukamoto," Rin said with a smile.

"Girls shouldn't be fighting by themselves," Ayato said, taking her hand.

Rin pulled away, not from disgust but simply from instinct and personal space issues. "It's fine, I'm strong enough!" She grinned.

Kazuya, on the other hand, did not share her confidence. He let out a sigh, sitting down on the ground and attempting to pull his PE jacket (it didn't have a hood, which was _ridiculous_ ) over his head to block out the sunlight. (It didn't work). "Why do we have to be doing this…?"

As he muttered his complaints to himself, he looked up towards the person who brought them there.

—Meanwhile, Ayato was asking Rin for her phone number when Miya crashed in (literally).

* * *

"Hey, Nagisa," Hayami said suddenly. "I think he's looking over here."

"Huh?" Nagisa turned and followed her gaze. His blue eyes fell on the boy with pale blue hair sitting under a tree— _glaring daggers at him._

Nagisa sweatdropped. _Did I do something wrong…?_

* * *

Keda didn't want to lose. No matter what.

She typically didn't have too much interest in whatever they were doing during class, while she didn't mind it either, but somehow this simple game of paintball had heightened her competitivity. Even if she had never played it before.

She held up her gun and looked around for any people nearby. The forestry mountaintop was a terrain that Keda wasn't all that used to, but it wouldn't take long for her to get used to it.

Suddenly, she dodged left, narrowly avoiding the red paint that coated the tree next to her. With a small smile, she turned and ran.

 _Yeah, I should probably plan something out. It'd do no good to get hit now._

But either way, all the running she was doing was tiring.

"Keda."

Keda saw Ameko ahead of her, the black haired girl taking shelter on a tree branch. Ameko waved her hand shyly.

Keda wasn't sure if she could make it, since she wasn't very proud of her arm strength, but with the advantage of her height, she was barely able to pull herself up.

She smiled at Ameko. "Do you know who it is?"

Ameko nodded slowly, hesitating a little. "I'm pretty sure it's Kal." She knew he and Lyka preferred to be referred to by their given names, and so everyone did so.

"Oh" was all Keda said in response, probably too wrapped up in her thoughts.

"Any ideas?" Ameko asked politely.

"Probably," Keda answered vaguely, still thinking.

"Well," Both girls were startled when Masahiro suddenly dropped down next to them, his glasses nearly slipping down his nose. He pushed them up absently as he commented, "if Kal's there, I assume Lyka would be also."

"You….how long have you been there?" Ameko asked finally, moving back a bit.

"A while," Masahiro responded vaguely, looking away and running his green eyes along the trees around them. "Either way, if we're going anywhere, we'll need a counter plan."

"Yeah," Keda agreed.

Personally, Masahiro didn't want to deal with it, but he would rather not just leave the two girls there. But either way, it was troublesome….

Silence stretched out among the three, each one wrapped up in their thoughts.

Suddenly, Ameko tapped them both on the shoulder lightly, briefly casting aside her shyness. There wasn't time. "Hey. We have to move."

Neither one of them protested, and the three of them dropped from the tree just as Lyka appeared through the air with a knife in her hands. The moment they did, Kal fired a couple of times with frightening accuracy considering the distance between them—he must have had good eyesight. The girls both immediately reached for their guns, firing blue paint in retaliation. Kal moved aside and switched locations.

Masahiro turned and faced Lyka, who had dropped to the ground gracefully after them, smiling brightly. He drew his own knife, hesitating slightly at the touch. Lyka looked like she wanted to charge in at the sight of hesitation, but she held back.

 _What is this two-man ambush?_ Keda thought to herself, annoyed, though she didn't say it aloud. She motioned for Ameko to follow her in and try to close the distance.

At that moment, Yukio suddenly appeared, guns blazing as they all ducked. "Doryaaaahhhh!"

"Is he trying to hit us too?" Ameko muttered to herself so quietly no one else heard it as she patted her hair down.

Masahiro did another perimeter scan before he took the opportunity to go ahead and slip out of the chaos.

"Take that, Kal!" Yukio declared.

Kal clicked his tongue irritably and signaled for Lyka to back off. Dealing with four—or, well, three?— at once when there was only two of them was troublesome, and he hadn't adapted a full plan yet. Lyka looked disappointed but vanished through the trees despite the blue paint being fired at her by Keda and Ameko both.

Yukio gave the girls a grin. "Leave it to me!" He declared confidently.

"I haven't said anything yet…?" Ameko tilted her head slightly.

Yukio's entire face turned red in embarrassment.

Keda looked around. _Well, that didn't go well. I'll blame my laziness for that. But I should start planning for next time, just in case…_

Lyka skipped across the ground cheerily, her blond hair swishing behind her. She landed next to her boyfriend with a hop, giving smile as they made their escape and leaning in to look at him. "Awh, we were close. But as I'd expect of you, Kal."

Kal held the gun up with a mischievous glint to his heterochromia eyes as he returned his girlfriend's smile. "What are you talking about, Lyka? I haven't even started planning yet."

* * *

Nagisa smiled as he watched his new students playing paintball all over the mountain. He turned back to look at the classroom.

 _Are you watching, Korosensei? This is my very own_ assassination classroom!

* * *

Whew~! All done! Hope you enjoyed that, because I know I enjoyed writing it :)

Oh, back to what I was saying earlier! You know how before the game began, I showed a little bit of each team's conversation? Weeellll as it went on, not only did it keep getting longer, but I also started realizing some characters were easier to write than others (either in general or just in terms of dialogue), so the attention started shifting. Therefore, for the first half of the game (that would be included in this chapter) I picked out three characters from each team that I felt weren't included enough and tried to add them in at the end, if you noticed :)

 **-Update: Well...I was going to...but then it got way too long and I had to shift the purple and green teams to the next chapter. Sorry!**

 **Therefore, next chapter will start with: Nanami, Kenryuu, and Anka (purple), followed by Wakana, Fan, and Masako (green).-**

I'm trying to not be biased, but I have to say, 28 characters at once is hard, okay? Sorry to those who felt they didn't get enough screen time? (Thought it was pretty even, with spotlight on some though). Although, I can say hands down, the character I wrote in most was definitely Akagawa Masako. She's easy to write, so I like her :)

Thanks for waiting! Hopefully the next chapter will go faster!

Please do tell me how I did! I'd love to hear your thoughts! Again, people who don't have characters should also review! (It's more objective). You never know, in the future I might favor people who review more! O.o (An idea I borrowed from someone else :)

See you next chapter~

Chikage

PS I'm sorry for these killer length author's notes...wow, not updating for a month leaves me with a lot to say.


	7. Chapter 3(cont): Game Time

Minna-san~! I'm back! And I have good news! Finals are over, and I got A's on all of my subjects! Yaaay for me~

Wait, that was at the end of May!

I meant to post this earlier but I got caught up in camps and couldn't write for some time. Sorry~! (I even bruised my face in tennis camp. My face. It hit the floor. Like, how does that even happen?)

And please understand that it doesn't mean I'm going to have a whole ton of writing time just because it's summer. Between volunteering, tennis coaching, summer homework (ew), SAT prepping (also ew), summer camps, etc, I'm still going to be pretty busy. Sorry, but you understand!

But I have _two_ new chapters people~ (Technically one and a half, but whatever). Get hyped! The paintball game goes on!

Ah, if you noticed, in the last chapter I hesitated on killing people off. Just my personality. But I had some convincing (thanks to MaryAllen again; really owe you a lot!), and then I went crazy in the end and did whatever (tehe~) starting in the next chapter. So if your character gets eliminated quickly or has a small part, don't hold it against me, kay? Oh, but that doesn't happen until next chapter, since I wanted this half a chapter to be kept in the same format as last time.

Oh yeah, I've finally decided on the layout for the rest of the game. It will be in a few more chapters like this (I'll tell you so you know what to expect):

 _Chapter 3(cont): Game Time_

 _Consists of this super long author's note plus the two(?) remaining parts from last chapter (didn't want to put that in the other chapter so it's here!)_

 _Chapter 4: Red and Purple Time_

 _Red Team vs Purple Team! Fight on!_

 _Chapter 5: Blue and Green Time_

 _Blue Team vs Green Team! Ganbatte~_

 _Chapter 6: Game Time 2nd Period_

 _Wrap up of the paintball game!_

Maa, I haven't finished those last two chapters yet though. The battle scenes are taking me even longer than usual, and I wanted to at least get _something_ out for all the waiting that's been done. I apologize if you're disappointed by the strictly 2v2 format; anything else and it would have been too complicated for me.

Okey, I'm done now. Happy reading, sorry for the delay!

* * *

 **Chapter 3(cont): Game Time**

Nanami had definitely had her share of fun with the whole megahorn incident. She had run across Nozomi and suddenly remembered the megahorn, having been curious as to whether or not she should be worried about moles on her team. So she had asked to borrow it.

After all, why not?

That ended….interestingly. She and Nozomi had both ended up being ambushed by Miya, who unloaded fired a gun straight up at full power. It was clear that she hadn't planned on using her gun again after that. Despite her short stature, her aim was more or less on point, and it was only the girls' agility that allowed them to escape unscathed.

Nanami hummed slightly to herself as she walked through the forest. She held her knife in her hand tightly, prepared for any kind of ambush. However, she was definitely not ready for where it came from in the end.

"Look out!"

Nanami suddenly felt a force on her wrist that pulled her off to the side, and she glanced over her shoulder to find Anka. Anka quickly released her, stepping back a step. "Sorry, I was just passing by, so…"

"No, it's fine," Nanami smiled. "Is something the…" Her voice trailed off as she realized what she was looking at. What she had completely missed while she was walking.

Tangled in the branches of thick tree roots, camouflaged lightly by leaves and dirt, Wakana was lying in wait. The moment they noticed her, she sat up from where she was hiding, absently brushing leaves from her hair. Her brown eyes held a hint of disappointment in her failure, but otherwise she said nothing as she climbed to her feet with her knife in hand, prepared for battle.

Nanami raised her own knife in response. "That was cool, Kusanagi!" She complimented with a beam. "I didn't see you at all!"

Wakana silently nodded her thanks, and luckily Nanami seemed to get the message. Wakana breathed in once and then with one quick movement, she was charging forward at full speed, raising her knife. Nanami was clearly surprised by this action, and she caught her classmate's knife briefly with her own before thrusting it aside and jumping back a step. _Would she really attack me so straightforwardly when it's clearly a two on one?_ She glanced over towards where Anka was standing next to her. _Unless…_

Anka came to the same conclusion and turned quickly, letting Nanami handle Wakana. He had barely even started his perimeter scan when there was a slight rustle of movement, and he turned just in time to see a green paintball flying in his direction. He dodged to the left and caught sight of Masaki standing in the near distance, who immediately started running in a different direction, ducking down to stay hidden. He didn't particularly want to give chase but he went ahead anyway, pulling out his gun.

He hadn't ran very far when someone suddenly appeared in front of him, swinging down heavily with their knife. Anka raised the gun he now held up in protection, narrowly blocking the blow. He realized it was Fan, who still had white headphones over his ears. Anka threw a punch forward with his other hand, but Fan had already retreated backwards a little, knowing about his strength and not wanting to get hit.

Anka muttered a silent curse. Honestly, he didn't even really care too much about this game…although perhaps he wanted to try his hand at beating Kal once. That had nothing to do with this though. He quickly turned back to the battle at hand.

Fan didn't bother with attempting to keep his distance and came in close again, raising his knife. This time, Anka caught him by the wrist before he could hit, using his free hand to raise the gun he was holding. Fan quickly switched the grip he was using to hold the knife and aimed to stab at the hand holding on to him, forcing Anka to let go and allow him to duck underneath the gunshot.

After trading a few blows, Fan realized that from time to time his opponent would give a brief glance around, clearly worried about being sniped by Masaki mid-battle. This immediately infuriated him as he drew out his own gun (that he hadn't planned on using) and fired once point-blank for Anka's face. As expected, Anka dodged easily.

"Hey," Fan complained. He was aware that he was being a little rude, but he didn't care. "You're in the middle of a battle, you know."

"Yeah, sorry," Anka sounded almost bored as he answered (to be fair though, he usually did), but he returned his focus to the battle on hand.

Masaki made sure that no one had noticed him as he ducked behind another bush, hiding for another chance. He honestly wasn't sure how to go about this entire scenario yet; he felt nervous just _holding_ the gun in his hand. But he knew he would try his best for his teammates—the moment he thought this and gathered enough courage to peek out at the battle between the girls happening near him, he immediately tensed up again and ducked down. _I can't do this!_

Wakana neatly parried Nanami's next blow, and Nanami skipped backwards to put some distance between them. "You're good with a knife."

Wakana wanted to return the compliment, but she remained silent instead and nodded. There was a lot that she could say about the unexpected situation, but she held it all back. During this short interaction, Masaki finally decided to go ahead and fire once, now that he was sure he wouldn't hit his own teammate (not that he knew what that would count for). Nanami ducked aside quickly, having seen it coming a little ahead of time.

"Oh, hey, Nanami." Nanami glanced over her shoulder to see Kenryuu casually sliding down the hill. "You need a hand?"

"Nope, I think I'm good here," Nanami answered, still keeping her eye on Wakana cautiously. "Ah, I'm not sure about Kagirinai though—" she glanced over her shoulder briefly and changed her mind, "Never mind, he looks fine to me. Oh, Kuroi isn't bad either! Ah, ah," She quickly drew her attention back to her own battles. "I am a little worried about Kaminaga. Though not too much."

 _That hurts,_ Masaki deadpanned from his hiding spot. But he could understand why.

"Hm," Kenryuu debated on whether or not he _really_ wanted to enter the battle. He'd stopped by to talk to Nanami since he had spotted her, but he hadn't thought that they were in the middle of such a big hassle.

Wakana wanted to attack while they were talking, but not only did they now know about Masaki's presence, she was aware that Kenryuu and Anka were at least relatively at the same level in terms of strength: not a level she could go up against unscathed. Her next move was to escape and replan, but she wasn't sure if Nanami would give her the opening to do so.

Just when they were all in the middle of a stalemate, wondering what to do—

"That's it, I am literally going to murder you!"

With this crude holler, two figures chasing one another came crashing out of the trees. Ayaka brushed through them without seeming to notice the tension, calling out, "Sorry, not sorry, you can ignore me—" Once she had leaped over where Anka and Fan were fighting (with the assistance of a nearby tree branch), she turned and yelled back, "I'd like to see you try, slowpoke! You can't even _catch_ me, can you?" And a fuming Jun came chasing after her at full speed seconds later.

They all sweatdropped. — _Third party interference?!_

As the two members of the blue team ran off without realizing what they'd interrupted, the other fighting members decided to call a temporary ceasefire as all the building anticipation was killed within moments.

* * *

Yes, I did just get lazy and combine the two teams into one battle :P Sorry~ I just really wanted to post that next chapter. The length of it makes up for it, don't worry.

Oh, yes! I have other news too! *Excited.

I have received fanart! They're character profiles from KyrieEleisonElise! I will post the link here (I've never posted links before—sorry if it takes me a few reposts to get it right!) Go ahead and say what you think in the reviews so that she can see them! I've wanted to draw too, but I don't have time...I barely even get my chapters done, really...sigh. I'll see~

Without further ado, here's the link~! (I can't post links, right? So I have to split it? Well, just type this in your search bar minus the spaces. The periods and slashes are included.)

http

:

/

/

midorieweflowers

.

deviantart

.

com/gallery/62884518/Class-3-5

If anyone else wants to do fanart, then just let me know and I have a list of appearances I am willing to send you! They're simply the appearance descriptions that you guys submitted, so some of them are super long and others are super short.


	8. Chapter 4: Red and Purple Time

If you missed the chapter before this, please go read that first. Thank you! :)

All right, here we have the Red Team vs. the Purple Team! Those of you with characters in the other teams, please be patient, I'm working on that now! I look forward to seeing what you have to say about this chapter nonetheless! I worked really hard on the battle scenes!

Oh, but they might be a bit bland; however, that does make sense considering they haven't been trained like the original assassination classroom. They're just the usual high school delinquents. Wait, not usual. They're definitely not normal. :) Hope you still like it though!

Also—this was an accident, but it's a _monster_ chapter. _9,000 words._ You heard me right. Well after all this time, you guys deserve it :D

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Red and Purple Time**

A bush rustled all of a sudden.

The one who reacted to this quickly was Naoi, quickly pointing his gun straight towards where the sound came from defensively, brushing his light gray hair from his pale green eyes. He wasn't sure if he would be able to hit them on the first try, but it'd be better to try than to not. To his surprise, pink hair came out of the bush and Ran stood up with her hands raised in a peace gesture, not seeming to notice his surprise.

"Wait!" She insisted.

"R-Ran?!" He was clearly surprised by his childhood friend's intrusion. The gun tip dipped slightly. "Why are you here…?"

"I just wanted to talk," Ran said, stepping towards him while lowering her hands. "It's fine, right? I mean, we're friends after all…" Her expression didn't change, but Naoi, having known her for some time, could read the minute details and noticed her slight nervousness. He quickly put his gun away.

"Yeah—" Naoi started.

"I thought we could team up," Ran explained. "I mean, I know Sensei said no alliances, but this is just the two of us, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal, right?" She stood right in front of him now, staring up at him. "I don't want to have to fight against you after all…."

"But…"

Hesitant and undecided, Naoi looked towards where their teacher stood on the top of the hill, as if asking for permission, but it was at this moment that something touched his waist. Suddenly getting a bad premonition, he glanced down slowly and noticed the purple paint spread all over his white gym shirt from the knife in the girl's hands.

"Ran—"

Ran pulled her knife back and turned it over in her hands, tilting her head curiously. "Come on, Naoi, we're in the middle of a game. That's just talk. Plus, you're as uncompetitive as you always are, you know? Not to mention too nice."

Naoi couldn't help but recoil from what she said. _That was blunt!_

"Sorry, but I don't plan on losing," Ran said with a face that looked more determined than he had ever seen it before.

And then, it all happened in a flash.

A figure came down behind her, and Ran's eyes widened slightly. She didn't even turn around before ducking straight down, barely avoiding a knife coated in red that chased her braid, and scrambled off to the side, moving to hide behind Naoi. She was pretty much using him as a shield at this point.

Lyka stood there, having swung and missed, she looked highly disappointed. "Oh, well, too bad." She shrugged finally. Then she looked at Naoi and said something terrible in a cheerful tone, "Sorry, Yozora, Kal totally used you as bait. I think he figured Muramasa would come to find you."

"Huh?" Naoi blinked, having just been in a double betrayal.

"Even though I was against it, too…" Lyka huffed irritably. "Well, I couldn't overturn him. Sorry!" With this finishing apology, her hand came around him and aimed to hit Ran, but she stepped backwards and was barely able to avoid it. As she did, her hand came to her pocket and she pulled something out before flipping it in the air smartly.

Lyka didn't mind this, but Naoi looked up curiously, shielding the sun with his hand. _What's that….? A mirror…?_ Sure enough, the small handheld mirror flashed brightly in the sun, as if signaling their location—

His eyes widened. He was about to call out, but then he hesitated when he remembered that he had just been struck out. Was he still allowed to talk at that point? Luckily, there was no need for him to.

" _Lyka!_ "

Ran's lips turned upwards slightly as she was able to locate Kal's position also. However, as expected of the two, the sniping shot that came out towards Lyka's blind spot was quickly knocked away by a branch of wood that Kal threw. The boy frowned and turned his gaze towards where it came from, seeking out the sniper.

"You came prepared, didn't you, Muramasa?" Lyka noted with a smile as she knew that her boyfriend had her back.

"Of course," Ran fired back. "I wouldn't come here empty handed."

As the girls traded comments, Naoi snuck out of the battlefield and headed up towards where their teacher was waiting. As usual, Ran made him painfully aware of his own weaknesses.

Lyka stepped forward, the knife spinning in her hand, and then clasped the hilt firmly and swung forward. This motion was blocked by Ran's knife, which she had raised to meet it without touching the paint on the tip. She was just a tad bit stronger than the blonde, but as Ran was pushing to break through, Lyka suddenly smiled and swept her other hand across. Luckily, Ran had been anticipating something else and moved to the side, but Lyka was faster.

 _Snap!_ Ran's foot caught a soft spot in the ground, snapping a small twig as she stepped, and she slid a little from the downhill slope, and this tiny movement gave her the leeway that she needed. Lyka's second blade hit air, and Ran was able to move aside, her green eyes narrowing slightly.

Lyka noticed her look and smiled, raising both knives coated in red paint. "There's nothing against having two of them, right?"

Ran was clearly expecting something as such, but thinking about it in battle mode, she realized it was much more troublesome than she had thought. Lyka pressed on, swinging both at once, and making it that Ran was unable to parry either blow and forcing her into a defensive situation. She thought rapidly and was freaking out a little on the inside, but she couldn't turn her gaze away from Lyka to examine her surroundings and whatever she could use. It took everything she had just to dodge—as expected, Lyka was really good with a knife.

"They're pretty good," Chiba commented.

"Yeah, better than I thought," Nagisa agreed with a nod. "Lyka's movements are fast, but they're a little erratic from time to time. I guess the second knife she asked for makes up for that. Muramasa, on the other hand, clearly doesn't have as skilled knifework but she has fairly good reflexes, and she's good at using her head."

"I'm also surprised by that snipe just now," Hayami pointed out, though impassively. If she was saying this, it meant a lot.

"This class is more interesting than I thought it would be," Nagisa noted. He had known they were a wild bunch, but he had never expected the game to get _this_ heated.

"Ah, that girl with the curly red hair earlier—her mobile sniping seems similar to yours," Chiba pointed out to Hayami. "It's just a bit rough on the edges."

Hayami simply nodded.

"Akagawa?" Nagisa tilted her head, thinking. He realized that he was right. "Speaking of which, where is….wait…." His blue eyes spotted the unruly red hair and that item in her hands— " _Isn't that a computer?!_ "

As if hearing his shout, the girl in question looked over her shoulder and caught his gaze, waving with a smile. The shape was a bit odd somehow, but it was clearly a mini computer in her hands. Now where did that thing come from?! More like, what was with this class and pulling things out of nowhere?!

— _This class is_ definitely _more interesting than I originally thought!_

Meanwhile, Ran remained strangely calm as she ducked under Lyka's blade, but she knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer. In fact, she might not even last a few more seconds under this pressure. Lyka noticed, smiling politely even as she attacked without mercy. "About ready to give in, Muramasa?" She asked in a slightly singsong voice that informed Ran that she was enjoying this.

"Sorry," Ran said, using her knife to parry the blade coming towards her left as she ducked behind a large tree. "But not now."

"Eh?" Lyka blinked twice when she suddenly felt an impact on her shoulder, and looked to find a splatter of purple paint. "Huh?! Where did this….?"

"You thought earlier that the mirror I threw up was a signal, right?" Ran asked as she cautiously backed up, securing her escape route. She intended to group back up with Masako, who had the location of the entire class that was spread out across the mountaintop. Somehow, she had styled her own computer into a vambrace resting on her arm, which was something Ran had also just discovered. "It was really just a distraction though."

Seeing her serious face, Lyka sighed in disappointment as she spun around, her blond hair flying off her shoulders. "Awh, too bad. You're just as smart as Kal, it seems." Her red irises sought out her boyfriend, finding him in the middle of a guerilla fight with the class prankster, Kyouki Nozomi. She gave him a small hand signal to inform him before looking back towards Ran. "But I had fun!"

Ran nodded impassively to agree before she turned and ran off.

Kal clicked his tongue in slight irritation as he moved cautiously with his gun in hand. As expected, Nozomi was there to keep him engaged in battle and prevent him from aiding Lyka. Even though he believed in her fully, he also knew that Ran was an incredible planner. However, thanks to his better than average eyesight (even if it was only in one eye), he had discovered the location of the sniper, who happened to be Yoh, but he didn't have time to worry about that. Someone else would find him eventually, anyway.

On the other hand, Nozomi was clearly in a disadvantageous battle, but she didn't really mind either way. Because she used a knife and he used a gun, that immediately put her behind, but thanks to her agility and reflexes she was barely able to get by. She swung across a tree branch lightly, dropping behind a bush to avoid the onslaught of gunfire that attacked.

If there was any way of getting closer to engage in close combat and give her more of an upper hand, Kal's guard was tight enough that she couldn't find one. She pulled out the knife coated in purple paint, preparing herself.

Kal moved from where he was standing defensively behind a tree, glancing around. Nozomi must have been hiding fairly well for him not to notice her. He took a small, hesitant step forward and immediately felt something as off. He didn't even wait to think about what it was, moving back again instinctively just as the ground caved downwards to give a tiny ledge. At this very moment, there was suddenly movement behind him. Kal didn't even turn to look as he pointed his gun in that direction, firing twice in two different angles.

Nozomi, having expected at least that much, was barely able to avoid it by a hair's width and swung her knife forward in a decisive strike. However, Kal had already prepared for that, meeting her blow with the spare knife that he had taken. Just because he preferred to use a gun didn't mean he was unable to use a knife. After all, he did have a girlfriend who happened to be a knife specialist.

"I'm surprised you were able to use just that soft ground to create such a trap," Kal noted matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, after my times setting pitfalls I've figured out a few tricks," Nozomi answered without hesitation. She took a step backwards to give herself space to strike again, exhibiting swift knife skills using her flexible wrist. It was clear that she had practiced with the knife quite a bit while she was setting up her pranks.

"Hm." Kal didn't look particularly interested despite having started the conversation. "Hey—"

In the brief moment that he suddenly got distracted, there was an incoming paintball, but Kal took a step backwards and the purple color splattered harmlessly on a tree branch. Nozomi tensed when the atmosphere changed all of a sudden, and she instinctively hopped back a few large steps.

"Sorry about this, Kyouki," Kal said with a slight venomous tone as he raised his gun and fired a few times. Nozomi was barely able to dodge all of them and move aside, running through the trees. "I've got nothing against you, but I'm feeling kinda pissed at the moment…"

"….Eh?" Nozomi didn't take long before she understood, a single brief glance over her shoulder telling her everything she needed to know. She quickly slid behind a bush when Kal let out another onslaught of well-aimed gunfire, making sure no part of her stood out. She was laughing inside. _Ah, really, this class couple._

As Kal reloaded, she silently crawled across the ground. She had her next game plan ready (luckily she had placed it ahead of time); she just needed to lure him there. She narrowed her light purple eyes and glanced over her shoulder quickly before breaking off into a sharp sprint. As expected, she was immediately attacked, but it didn't take long for Kal to stop firing as he realized it was useless to attack from a distance with her agility.

Nozomi smiled to herself as she charged forward, maxing out her speed, and straight through an open field, where she stopped in the middle, holding her knife in front of her defensively. Only it wasn't technically an _open_ field anymore—

Kal smiled briefly, though he looked slightly troubled. "You really go all out, don't you?"

Nozomi carelessly waved her empty gun in the air. "I wasn't going to use this anyway, so I figured I might as well use the bullets inside for something, you know?"

Right—she had scattered the purple pellets all over the ground around her, creating her own minefield. _(A/N: I don't play paintball, and I don't have a clue if paintballs actually have a solid substance, sorry. Just roll with it!)_

"That's—!" Nagisa exclaimed when he saw it, blue eyes wide in surprise.

"Didn't Karma use that on Korosensei once on his first day back?" Chiba remarked, recalling the time their former redhead classmate had scattered the anti-sensei BB pellets all over the floor to trip their octopoid teacher up.

"Y-Yeah," Nagisa nodded. "But in this case…"

"You don't have anywhere to hide now," Kal pointed out.

"Yes, well—" Nozomi ducked forward and kicked forward, sending the nearest pellet flying towards him. "Neither do you, right?"

The moment that Kal dodged the slow-moving purple paintball with ease, another one came flying from the opposite side at a much faster speed. Luckily he had his head turned at the time with his good eye on the lookout, and was barely able to dodge it. He clicked his tongue slightly. _Amafune—_ He had almost forgotten about the sniper.

At this moment, Nozomi charged in with her knife held at hip level, ready to stab forward. She feinted her first strike and curved around back as a bright red splatter appeared on the floor, the tip of Kal's gun lagging only slightly as it followed her back. To his surprise, her eyes were attracted to the muzzle of the gun and the moment it came well into her striking dance, she placed her knife against the end of it to prevent him from firing. Obviously since it was rubber, there was no chance of her destroying the weapon, but if she could at least buy a few seconds, that would be all that she needed.

She cut her leg forward expertly, looking to trip him into the minefield of paintballs, but Kal had already expected that and grabbed her by the arm the moment she was off balance. Nozomi tried to move out of range but couldn't stop her momentum, and there was no way that she was as strong as he was, especially given that speed was her greatest factor.

 _Blam!_

"Sorry, Kyouki," Kal said, still somewhat irritated as he held the gun back up in a defensive position. "But nice try."

"Awh, that was barely any fun at all," Nozomi complained as she put her knife away in slight disappointment, making a face at the red spot on her chest. "And I was expecting something good…." The tip of her tongue poked out slightly from between her lips, but it was gone as fast as it was there, and she laughed. "Guess I'll go set up some pranks for the other classes later."

Lyka frowned slightly as she watched the battle wrap up before heading towards the top of the hill, to the jail cell. _Jeez, I told him to take care of the rest of it, and somehow it still ended up like that…Well, I guess that yandere part of him is cute too._ She giggled a little, and then looked away. "But I really wanted to get Mikanegi out though…"

 _Meanwhile—_

 _Meiko walked carelessly across the trail like she was in a field of flowers, a strange glittery aura surrounding her. Suddenly, she felt a sudden chill go down her spine, and she shivered noticeably, stopping in her tracks. Seconds later she turned her chin upwards and raised her hands._

 _"Ah, winter has come."_

 _To any classmates watching nearby, they could only be perplexed once again by her usual nonsensual actions._

"Um, that was…" Nagisa was at a loss for words. Intense? Crazy? Heck, this entire match that was supposed to be an icebreaking game between high schoolers was becoming professional-level competitive! Even he couldn't predict where it was going anymore!

Chiba, on the other hand, had to admire Yoh's well-placed snipes. "That sniper isn't bad at all."

"Nn," Hayami nodded in agreement. "I gave him a rifle on a hunch, but I never expected him to be that good with it. It seems like he has good eyesight."

Chiba nodded also. "Well, if he stays in one place all the time, he's going to get caught sooner or later…"

"Oh, there it is," Hayami pointed as she watched a boy approach the sniper's hiding spot with a red-colored knife in hand.

"It seems like Tsukamoto has found him," Nagisa noted, also spotting the boy with pale blue hair similar to his own. "Now what will Amafune do…"

As the three teachers were watching, Kazuya stepped into the hidden, shaded area (with a look of satisfaction), and Yoh simply turned his head to look without sitting up from his sniping position. The two seemed to exchange words for a brief moment before Kazuya took another step forward and poked the tip of his rubber knife onto Yoh's undefended back without another moment's hesitation.

Nagisa, Hayami, and Chiba all sweatdropped. "— _Just like that?!_ "

Kazuya looked at Yoh, clearly also surprised by what had just happened. "That was too easy." He hadn't expected a fierce battle, as there was no way that he was giving chase under that scorching sun, but he also hadn't expected Yoh to not move an inch despite clearly having seen him approach.

Yoh finally sat up, pulling his rifle in. "Well, I didn't see any point in running. Plus, I can snipe from the jail cell anyway, so Muramasa shouldn't have any complaints….I think." But the nonchalant look on his face clearly said that he didn't care whether or not she did.

"All right, then I'm staying here," Kazuya said, sitting down in the shade. He mumbled, almost unwillingly, "I'll head back out later..." Using the high-rise hiding spot, he kept an eye out on the battlefield.

"DORYAAAAH!"

A loud war cry was raised suddenly, and it naturally drew the attention of the instructors to the source. Nagisa blinked twice upon seeing the girl. "Is that Nishiomi? I almost missed her."

The chibi brunette burst through the trees, landing on the path smoothly. Her crimson eyes sparkled in anticipation. "Target spotted! Nishiomi Miya, ready for battle!" She yelled like she was starring in an anime.

"Whoa, Nishiomi?" The one standing in front of her was Kenryuu, laughing. "What's with that chuunibyou phrase?"

"Sorry, I'm just really excited," Miya answered with a beam, not minding the question at all. Which was good, since Kenryuu hadn't meant it offensively in the slightest. "Kagaya, fight me! Fight me!"

"Are you sure—" Kenryuu was ignored as Miya suddenly threw a kick forward with a jump. As her legs and arms were shorter, she had to close in more, but this didn't seem to be a problem for her—in fact, she used it as an advantage. Kenryuu jumped to the side easily and the girl's foot hit the ground, throwing up dirt. "Hm, looks like there's no avoiding it."

"The chibi isn't bad," Chiba said as they watched the battle. Miya attacked relentlessly with her fists and feet, but Kenryuu easily dodged or blocked all of them. "She definitely has power."

"Mm," Hayami agreed. "But on the other hand, it feels like he—Kagaya, was it?—is holding back for some reason."

Nagisa didn't know the class well enough to give a definite answer to this, but he could give a decently accurate one-word guess: _laziness_. It was either that or kindness, and he was slightly leaning more towards the former.

Kenryuu definitely couldn't deny the power and accuracy behind the girl's punches and kicks, but either way, it didn't take much at all for him to block her. After all, while he hadn't necessarily thoroughly taken part in martial arts studies, he knew all the basics plus more from various places, and he had more than enough strength to back it up. Therefore, the current battle was honestly effortless for him, despite both his slight laziness and her black belt karate.

Miya seemed to sense that, and she puffed up her cheeks in an angry pout. "Hey! Come on! You have to take me—" She swung her leg up in a sharp kick at full power, and Kenryuu backed up instinctively. "— _seriously_!" The entire tree rattled and shook, green leaves littering the floor around them.

Kenryuu whistled lightly as he straightened again, cautiously keeping his distance as he glanced over at the tree. "Whoa, that's got enough power to rival Miyamoto's kick." He remembered that morning clear enough.

Miya pumped her fist. "All right! I nailed it! Hey, hey, did you see that, Kagaya?! Did you see that?! That's pretty good, isn't it? Isn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah," Kenryuu laughed even though he had already answered most of her questions. "Well, guess I don't have a choice."

Miya's crimson eyes flashed again. "Then you'll fight me seriously, right? No holding back! Definitely! Right? Right?!" Her enthusiasm caused her voice to rise higher in volume with every word.

"Yep."

With this simple reply, Kenryuu ducked down so that he wouldn't aim too high (she was only a little taller than half his height, after all) and threw his first punch. Miya easily ducked out of the way, given her stature, and aimed her elbow for his unprotected stomach, but he saw it coming and blocked it with his other hand. Miya'a pout was clearly shown on her face, but nevertheless her guard wasn't released at all, as she saw Kenryuu's hand come in from the side, perhaps aiming to grab her arm. She nimbly hopped backwards a few steps and prepared her defensive position again.

"You're sure it's all right to let them fight like this?" Hayami asked Nagisa.

"Well, I didn't say anything against close combat, but…" Nagisa looked uneasy, but he sighed finally. "There's no getting around it, I think. But if it seems to get dangerous, I'll step in if I need to."

Hayami simply nodded in approval.

Miya was surprisingly quiet as she was battling. The usual chatterbox chibi was gone, replaced by a cautious, defensive fighter. She pulled out her rubber knife and held it at her side tightly. Truth be told, even though she was fairly skilled in karate, she preferred having a weapon at her side. Half of it was because it was slightly more reassuring, but the other half was—well, it was cool, wasn't it?

She dashed forward, kicking the ground for a better start, and then curved around to the back. Kenryuu wasn't as fast as her so he didn't bother with trying to stop her; instead, he turned—

Miya was nowhere to be seen. He clicked his tongue slightly as he realized she had hid, and with her size, it wasn't hard at all to stay completely hidden. He decided he needed some height and easily scaled the nearest tree, knowing that Miya didn't know how to climb trees due to her shortness. Kenryuu easily located her behind a bush, and she spotted him as well. Without making a single noise of surprise, Miya broke off into a sprint, sliding across the ground and shrinking down her already tiny figure even more.

Kenryuu pulled out the unused gun and fired a couple of times, even though he knew he wasn't going to hit her. The girl drew closer, and he instinctively jumped from the tree just as she swung forward another heavy karate kick, rattling the tree once again. The moment he landed, she charged in on him, swinging the knife, but he easily grabbed her arms to pin them in place, raising the gun again, this time for a point-blank shot.

Miya was faster. Using both her lightness and his strength to her advantage, she swung herself upwards and stamped her foot on his undefended stomach with a simple tap.

"…Huh?" Kenryuu blinked at the red mark found on the front of his gym shirt, releasing her.

"All right! I won!" Miya exclaimed enthusiastically, jumping up and down as high as she could. She lifted her shoe to show him the red paint slashed across the bottom, her loud mouth coming back. "You know, since I thought that I wouldn't be able to beat you head on or anything, I went ahead and put some paint on the bottom of my shoe with my knife. I wanted to put some on my hands too, but that would be both nasty and obvious. Hey, hey, hey, I won! I won! I won! Kagaya, I won!"

Kenryuu gave her a smile. "Yeah, you did. Good job, Nishiomi."

"But you're like really strong! How did you get that strong?! That's so cool! I almost couldn't beat you! Hey, hey, hey, could you teach—"

While Miya was mid-jump, something suddenly came flying through the air and splattered on the girl's chest.

"Ah."

Both of them froze upon seeing the splatter of purple come out of nowhere and strike her while she was undefended. Kenryuu tried his best not to laugh, and Miya curled up in a ball next to a tree, clearly depressed by the sudden turn of events.

Nagisa had also somewhat frozen simply from watching, and he turned his gaze downwards, to the jail cell right in front of him and the sniper lying there with his rifle. "Hey, Amafune, wasn't that a little mean?!" He protested.

Yoh glanced back towards him absently, pulling an earbud out of his ear. "Hm? Ah. Sorry." Neither his tone nor his expression seemed apologetic at all despite this, though. "Muramasa told me to either aim for openings in battle or openings after battles. Nishiomi was too short for me to aim properly through the trees, but it was fine once she started jumping."

— _This class! Really!_ Nagisa exclaimed in his mind.

"They're merciless," Chiba and Hayami both said bluntly.

"Who's next…" Yoh murmured as he scanned the perimeters again, quickly spotting Rin running. He aimed the rifle again, preparing to fire.

Naoi watched this action a little nervously, wanting to help his teammate somehow but not sure how. He suddenly got a good idea and turned from where he sat to face the teacher, smiling. "Shiota-sensei!"

"Hm?" Nagisa glanced down briefly from where he was assessing the situation. "What is it, Yozora-kun?" He had to double check his memory for the names—he wanted them all down by the end of the game, and he was making pretty decent progress.

"If Amafune can shoot other players from here—" As Naoi talked, Yoh didn't even bat an eye from where he had just fired once at Rin, who skillfully dodged at the last moment, using her fast, martial-arts trained reflexes, simply reloading like he wasn't hearing a word being said behind him. "—then are we allowed to stop him?"

Nagisa paused to think. Hayami deadpan thought, _You didn't think that far, did you?_ Finally, the teacher answered hesitantly, "Well….I suppose I don't see an issue with that…"

The moment that she heard this, Lyka's crimson eyes lit up and she snatched the rifle from where it stood at lightning speed, holding it tightly in her grasp. She hopped to her feet and backed up with it held tightly in her hands, expecting him to fight back for it. "Good idea, Yozora!" She beamed, giving him what they called an angel's smile. "Okay, then, Amafune, you'll have to fight me if—"

Once again, Yoh made no move to do so. "Well, I don't really care though…"

"Eh?" Lyka blinked, clearly confused.

Yoh simply put his earbuds back in and turned back around to watch the battles happening. It was at this time that Miya came charging up the hill, yelling at the top of her lungs.

Nagisa smiled a little at the sight of his class— _his_ very own class—getting so into the game before returning his gaze to the battlefield, finding Rin who had just escaped her temporary hiding spot.

 _Man that was close…_ Rin let out a breath as she ran, briefly glancing over her shoulder. _I hadn't expected that to come out of nowhere. She smiled, feeling a little excited. I should probably keep my guard up—_

She hadn't even finished her entire thought when she noticed someone coming from her right. She instinctively killed her running momentum, sliding forward, and then hopped a couple steps backwards. Like she had expected, someone came leaping from the trees, aiming to take her down with one strike.

"Whoa!" Nanami laughed as she stumbled a little, though quickly regaining her balance. She spun the rubber knife that she had used to attack in her hand absently. "Hey, Miyamoto! You have really good reflexes! Oh right, you do martial arts, right?"

"Yep," Rin grinned back easily. "But that was a close one, either way."

Nanami smiled brightly as she pushed herself forward in a charge. "Thanks!"

Rin easily read her open movement and sidestepped, aiming to grab her outstretched arm or something of the sort to stop her movement. However, Nanami was more nimble and used her free hand to grab a small tree branch above her, catching herself for a brief moment and pitching the knife forward as fast as she could with her other hand. Rin jerked to the side in surprise, ensuring that her long hair was out of the way as well, and when she turned back around, Nanami had dropped in front of her.

Rin smiled a little and brought her leg up in a strong kick to give herself some space. Nanami yelped as she ducked down to avoid it, landing hard on the ground. Rin took this to her advantage and backed up a little. _She's as unpredictable as ever._ Then she realized something.

"Did you just throw away your weapon?"

"Hm?" Nanami looked at her open hand. "Oh, oops, I did! Well, no biggie."

Rin smiled briefly. "Well sorry, but I'm not holding back!"

As Nanami jumped behind a tree for protection with a light laugh, she answered cheerily, "Yeah, I hope you won't!" The tree rattled slightly, and Rin ducked through the falling leaves to move around it. Nanami had already crawled onto the nearest tree branch, hopping forward lightly. Her violet eyes searched the grounds for her weapon, and she was pleased to find it nearby. Honestly, she hadn't thought at all about throwing her knife; she had just figured that it was the best way to attempt to hit Rin, who she knew was a very skilled fighter.

The moment she hopped down from the tree, Rin was suddenly there to ambush her, and she yelped in surprise as she carefully skipped backwards to avoid the knife that came slashing forward. She had nearly tried to parry it with her bare hands but luckily had stopped herself in time, remembering she didn't have her knife yet. She backed up a little to keep her distance, unsure of how to move next.

"Are you holding my knife hostage?" She joked bluntly, even as her hand moved down slightly towards where her gun was being held.

Rin had put her knife back away smoothly, and she smiled back. "Maybe? Well, I feel pretty confident that you won't be able to get to it."

Nanami moved cautiously, taking a few steps sideways, and then she suddenly burst into a run—away from Rin. Rin blinked in surprise, but didn't hesitate before giving chase. Her brown eyes remained fixed on her opponent, who nimbly hopped through the treetops. There was a slight lack of gracefulness, but that was expected, as she had never really bothered with climbing trees before. She stopped suddenly, and jumped backwards in an attempt to land a surprise kick on the redhead chasing her.

Rin skidded to a stop and wanted to grab Nanami's outstretched leg and send her flying, but she not only wondered if that was too mean but was also a tad bit too slow in her hesitation. She stepped to the side instead, and Nanami landed carefully as to not sprain an ankle. "You probably would've been faster if you'd used your hands to spin," She noted.

For a moment Nanami looked conflicted, but then she smiled again despite that. "Probably! Well, I didn't want to get splinters, right?"

Rin had to agree to this. Nanami reached down and picked up a small branch, ensuring that it wasn't sharp enough to hurt anyone. With her other hand, she carefully drew up the gun and held it tightly in her hand. If she got close enough, she might be able to hit her with a point-blank shot, but she also knew the risks of a close-combat battle…

Rin moved in with her knife this time, and Nanami quickly blocked the strike with the branch she had picked up. _Well, I'm thinking too much into it._ She swung the gun forward and fired once, but Rin ducked down and smoothly cut her legs out from under her before the girl could react. Nanami yelped as she hit the ground in surprise, quickly grabbing the hand that Rin was holding the knife with to keep it from touching her—

Red paint splattered on her shirt. Rin smiled sheepishly, holding the gun in her other hand that she had drawn out quickly. "Sorry, but even I can do a point-blank fire."

Nanami sighed and relaxed. She had forgotten that everyone had taken one knife and one gun regardless, so Rin would also have one on hand. "Too bad then."

"Sorry about that," Rin apologized again despite her clearly happy smile as she helped her classmate to her feet.

Nanami quickly returned the smile to reassure her, "Nope, it was a good battle!" To be honest, she secretly thought she hadn't done all that badly against Rin, given that she had never fought before.

"What did you think, Nagisa?" Chiba looked towards the teacher of the class.

"Erm…" Nagisa thought. "Miyamoto….right? She's definitely one of the more skilled out of the rest of the class, I'd say. She has martial arts background, right?"

"Yeah!" The one who answered his question happily was Miya, jumping up. "Miyamoto is really cool! She's all….bam! And wham! And hiyah! And she's really good at karate!"

Lyka giggled and couldn't help herself from patting the shorter girl on the head. "You're really good too, Nishiomi."

"Really? Thanks!" Miya beamed.

Nagisa continued his speculation. "She definitely doesn't seem to be holding back, for one, and she has both the power and the reflexes. But I get the feeling that she might be holding back a little bit, and another issue would be the scenery, I think."

"Right, she's been missing her hits quite a bit," Chiba agreed. "I suppose it would be fairly different compared to an open dojo."

"Yeah," Nagisa nodded. "And then the other girl….um….hang on a minute." The class sweatdropped as they watched him search his memory rapidly. They were already thoroughly surprised by all the names he had already remembered, though.

"You mean Nanami, right?" Kenryuu offered finally.

"Ah, yes," Nagisa nodded. "Fiore, correct?" At the nod, he went on, "She doesn't seem to be much of a fighter, so I'm already fairly surprised by her nimble agility. She's quick to adapt, and she's pretty unpredictable, in my opinion."

"Thanks! I do try."

Nagisa blinked and turned to see that Nanami had already approached the jail cell. Well, they hadn't been fighting all that far away to begin with, so that made sense. "Fiore…san."

"Oh, Nanami is fine," Nanami said quickly. "I'm not used to being referred to by my last name, after all."

"All right, Nanami," Nagisa agreed uncertainly.

"Shoot," Lyka said suddenly, and they all turned to look at her. "Huh? Oh, no, it isn't a big deal, but…" She looked somewhat sheepish as she watched the battle between her boyfriend and her other childhood friend in the distance. "Well, I knew it would come to this anyway."

"Kal, I know you're upset that Lyka got out, but don't vent your anger out on me," Anka deadpanned as he narrowly avoided his friend's well-placed shots.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kal answered simply, though that was clearly untrue and he knew it.

Anka stepped backwards slightly, feeling a little irritated. He'd almost forgotten just how petty his friend was. And it was troublesome, especially since he knew that he wasn't going to be able to beat him. "I had nothing to do with it, anyway."

"I know, I'll look for Muramasa later," Kal answered absently.

 _He's definitely holding a grudge against her,_ Anka decided as he pulled out his own gun as insurance. If he could get closer to Kal, that would be best, but he figured that it wasn't going to happen that easily. The one chance he might be able to count on was Kal's strange stamina, which seemed to act up from time to time. But knowing his friend, there'd be a backup plan for that as well.

 _Nothing against trying though_. Using his gun as a distraction, he immediately closed the distance between them, causing Kal to back up in response. After all, in terms of strength, they both knew that Anka was much more superior.

Kal fired twice in retaliation and continued to back up. He briefly wondered if attempting to deflect shots would do any good, but he quickly dismissed the thought as that wasn't happening with paintball pellets. He clicked his tongue slightly.

"Are you going to call it quits?" Anka asked impassively.

"What, chickening out?" Kal countered simply.

"That's my line."

Reconfirming each other's battle spirits, Anka closed the distance once again, this time managing to get close enough for a point-blank shot that made Kal move to the right. He went in for the grab, but something suddenly seemed to click in Kal's brain and he fired once. Towards the ground.

Anka glanced down and gave him a look when he realized that what Kal had hit _was his shoe_.

"What works works, right?" Kal answered with a laugh.

"That was cheap," Anka was clearly annoyed.

"Say hi to Lyka for me" was all Kal said in reply.

"Kagirinai…definitely had the determination to win," Nagisa said finally after pondering for a moment.

"But he doesn't seem like he has as much experience as that redhaired girl from earlier," Hayami had to comment. "If anything, he's strong, but he's still not very skilled in using it."

"I agree," Nagisa and Chiba both nodded.

Behind the teachers, the students were also chatting in the jail cell casually.

"Your boyfriend's pretty cool, you know," Nanami said to Lyka with a slight smile as they watched the battle wrap up.

"You can't have him," Lyka said automatically, as if by reflex.

" _We know_ ," They all deadpanned in response.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," Lyka apologized quickly as she realized just how she had sounded. "But he is, isn't he?" She smiled.

Sitting near the back of the prison cell, Naoi let his thoughts wander slightly. His green eyes caught sight of his childhood friend, and he frowned slightly. _Ran…what are you up to now?_

"Could you please cut it out?" Ran asked bluntly, leaning forward slightly. "Now isn't the time."

Masako laughed as she easily flipped through a couple tabs on her self-made computer. "Is there a time for teasing people?"

Ran pretty much ignored her, her eyes running across their surroundings. They were hidden pretty well, but it didn't hurt to be on guard. "Did you find anything useful?"

"Aside from the layout of the mountainside? Nah. If I'd known that we were going to be doing this, I'd have brought some mini cameras with me, but unfortunately I'm not psychic," Masako responded nonchalantly.

"I'm surprised that you have a computer in the first place," Ran mused.

"I'm surprised that you aren't more surprised about that," Masako answered at her expression.

"Hm? But I was already surprised enough, I think."

Masako couldn't help but burst into laughter at her response. Honestly, she probably would have preferred working on her own in a game like this, but not only could she not deny Ran's geniusness at such things… _the girl was just way too fun to tease_.

"We need a better plan to win the game," Ran pointed out. "I've come up with a few back-up ones, but there isn't much…" Her usually lively green eyes held a slightly annoyed expression.

"Sorry, yeah, I'll focus," Masako said quickly, using her fingers to pinch in on the map and zoom in. "But seriously, there isn't much on here at all." _Not a lot of useful things, sure, but there's definitely a lot of interesting things_. Something about a giant yellow octopus threatening to destroy the Earth seven years ago? Definitely interesting. But she could look more into that later.

"Akagawa," Ran interrupted suddenly, though not turning to look at the person she was talking to.

"Mm?" Masako answered absently as she tapped through a few keys while scrutinizing the map of the mountainside. She brushed her curly red hair out of her glasses irritably, since she usually had her nekomimi hood to hold it in place.

"We should probably move," Ran said in a low tone, keeping an eye out. Masako gave no response, though the way her finger twitched slightly before hitting the next key told Ran that the girl was listening. "From what I can see, there's two of them…I think it's Tsukamoto and…Shinsou…I think." Masako bit back the urge to make a witty comment and let her continue without interrupting. Since neither of the two attackers were gun-users, the girls didn't feel as much of a hurry. "I'll go that way and you go that way, and we can meet up…" Ran hesitated. She wanted somewhere discreet, but she wasn't sure—

"Then what about here?" Masako pointed on her screen, and Ran glanced down briefly before nodding.

"All right," Ran agreed.

Masako nodded—and then in one lightning fast moment, she had shut the lid of her computer and clamped it tightly back around her forearm, grabbing her rifle sitting next to her and shooting to her feet. Ran slid her knife from her sleeve (since it made for easy safekeeping, and it made her feel more reassured), and reconfirmed the position of the two attackers before taking off in one direction, and Masako in the other.

The peach-haired girl glanced behind her to see who was following and frowned slightly. _Tsukamoto, huh…_

"Oh, it's Shinsou," Masako noted as she looked over her shoulder briefly, raising her rifle in the air as she came to a stop on a tree branch. She'd have to turn the other way soon, anyway. "Does this mean you like me better than Muramasa?" She teased him.

Ayato looked conflicted about this and shrugged. "You're both beautiful, in my opinion," He said. "How about a cup of tea after this?"

"You already said that before," Masako reminded him as she went ahead and fired while he was mid-sentence. She would have preferred closing in on people when they weren't aware of her presence, but there was nothing to be done about the situation at hand. Ayato quickly ducked behind a tree for shelter.

"Then a cup of coffee—"

"You've already said that too," Masako interrupted as she leaped across the tree branches to get a better angle, finding Ayato easily and opening fire again. Ayato realized that this was slightly disadvantageous for him, especially if he was going to keep attempting to ask her out, and started running instead. "Oh? What happened? Did I scare you off already?" She asked sarcastically as she gave chase. She knew better than to get close enough for him to strike her with his knife, so she stayed in the treetops despite the weight of her rifle.

"Of course not," Ayato answered as he stopped suddenly and reached down. Masako was just taking this time to fire when something came flying through the air. She dodged quickly and readjusted her footing after nearly losing her balance, realizing that he had thrown a thick branch as a distraction.

"What were you going to do if that hit me?" She told him, and wasn't surprised to find him closing the distance between them.

"Oh, no, I would never dream of scratching your beautiful face."

Masako forced herself to hold back her laughter. _Man he is as cheesy as ever. I'm tempted to say something, but—_ She waited until he was right underneath her to jump backwards twice, landing neatly on another branch. As expected, Ayato was a little confused when she suddenly sat down on it, but she clasped her legs around it and spun upside down, giving her a better aim since she was lower. _I'll get time for that later._

Ayato realized too late what was happening, and she had baited him to where it wasn't easy to find a hiding place. Aiming carefully, she fired once and splattered a paintball on his shirt, quickly sliding back up so that the blood wouldn't rush entirely to her head. She smiled and said jokingly, "Sorry, Shinsou, but we're just a bad matchup."

"There's no such thing as a bad matchup," Ayato answered. "So, a cup of tea, how about it?"

"You already said that!" Masako called again as she retreated.

"Impressive," Hayami complimented. "She has a good balance and aim, I'd say." It had taken her quite a few months of training to master her mobile sniping style, so despite her words of impression, she could point out quite a few places that could use improvement: her footwork, tactics, and stealth to begin with. She almost wanted to take the girl in as a student.

Masako landed in their scheduled meeting spot and noticed Ran in the distance, coming towards her. She must have shaken off Kazuya somehow (she wasn't sure how, but it didn't matter to her).

"Akagawa—"

Ran started to say something and then stopped and pushed forward with a sudden burst of adrenaline. Masako suddenly felt her feet leave the ground as she was pushed backwards, surprised to find that Ran had charged at her suddenly. She understood a moment later when she spotted the red paint splattered on the girl's uniform sleeve, Rin standing off to the side with a gun pointed towards where Masako had been standing undefended moments before, and realized she'd totally let down her guard by accident.

"Why—" She began, but Ran beat her to it.

"Ah, sorry. I made my plans on the assumption that you were still in, so it would be troublesome to have to revise them and I acted without thinking," She said bluntly, dusting herself off. She looked careless about the entire situation.

Masako pursed her lips slightly upon hearing this, moving behind Ran a little to be out of firing range and turning to Rin instead. "Hey there, Miyamoto. Did you come to get revenge for last time too?"

"Hm? Last time?" Rin looked somewhat confused before she remembered and reassured quickly, "Oh, no. I swear this is by chance."

 _I was joking though,_ Masako thought dryly as she dug something out of her pocket and handed it quietly to Ran. "I'll call you later with this, thanks." With this, she glanced at her two opponents and immediately labeled both of them as ones who wouldn't climb trees—although she was a little more conflicted about Rin—and quickly recalled the closest escape path along the treetops, pulling herself up easily.

Rin immediately went and gave chase. Once she was gone, Ran glanced down at the object in her hand and gave a mental sigh. _Really. A megaphone, a computer, and now a Bluetooth—this class had everything covered._

Feeling a little irritated, she headed up towards the jail cell while laying out the remainder of her plans.

"This is….really heated up," Nagisa stammered again. There was really nothing more he could say, after all; even their original class hadn't reached such a level until after at least three months of Karasuma's training.

"Yep," Nozomi laughed from the prison ring. "Well, our class has always been pretty active if you know what I mean. That's why they call us a delinquent class after all." Nagisa gave her a sheepish smile in return.

"Now, I wonder who will come out on top…" Chiba mused thoughtfully.

Remaining players—

Red Team: Kazuya, Kal, Rin

Blue Team: ?

Purple Team: Masako

Green Team: ?

* * *

And that's the end! Seriously, tell me honestly what you felt about this, because I think this is the most effort I've ever put into writing a chapter, and I'm really excited!

(Yes, definitely. 9,036 words. _9_ _,036 words._ One chapter.)

Oh, if you have any ideas for matchups in battles between the other two teams, whether they are your characters or they aren't, because that'll really help me out a lot. I might have fried my brain with this chapter. I might not use all of them, but still. I know in this chapter, I had several ideas from MaryAllen, and one of them that I will point out is how Miya defeated Kenryuu (although it might be a bit anticlimatic). Apologies to either creator if you mind. But seriously, send the ideas through, because I will need them. I'm still not sure how I plan on doing the next chapter yet.

If you need a refresher on who's on which team (because it's been too long lol), you can ask me or look back to the previous chapter.

Hm, I think that's all I have to say left about this chapter. Hope you enjoyed, and I can't wait to see what you have to say! :D

Chikage

Oh! PS. Do tell me which battle was your favorite! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ


	9. Chapter 5: Blue and Green Time

IT'S HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE~~~~~~~~~~~~~! (If you got that teeny tiny reference, let me know and I'll get you virtual cookies. Seriously). But back on track, YOU CAN SCREAM NOW!

Okay, SO SORRY! Oh my lord I need to pull my game together. But it's all right now, tennis season is done and over with, and I can finally go to writing club, I'll dedicate club to this so hopefully I'll be able to post sooner! ...Keyword being HOPEFULLY! (Plus, battle scenes are really hard to write, so once that's over, I hope to speed things up).

And anyway, tada, I'm back with a new monster chapter! ...I HIT 10,000! WHAT THE HECK! They just keep getting longer!

Thanks for waiting~! We now get the Blue vs Green Teams! There are a lot more pair fights in this one, I think. Enjoy and tell me what you think! Once again, I'm pretty proud of my battle scenes!

PS. I'd wanted to post this on the 12th since that's when I turn 16 (hooray for birthdays!), buuuuut...I'd figured you'd waited long enough :P So send in the long reviews as an early birthday present! Gets excited. (Or something like that). XD

* * *

 **Chapter Five: Blue and Green**

"This could actually turn out really well, don't you think?" Kazuharu smiled brightly at Masahiro, who was standing next to her.

The boy sighed, pushing his glasses up slightly. "I guess so…"

Kazuharu ignored his apparent reluctance and went on, "I'd say we have a pretty balanced team, right? I'm kind of excited now! We can really win this!"

Masahiro glanced at her briefly and then averted his gaze again, thinking. "Maybe," He murmured. "More importantly…"

"Ah, that…" Kazuharu followed his gaze and towards where the biggest chaos was happening. It was quite a ways in the distance, but despite this, they both clearly knew what was happening. "Don't worry! Getting Hanasaka and Doumoto to somehow work together is my job, so leave it to me!" She declared confidently before she started in that direction, her long caramel-colored ponytail swishing as she ran.

Simply watching her go with no further actions, Masahiro let out another sigh as he leaned back against the tree he was standing in front of. His gaze wandered, and as it did, he caught sight of movement in the distance. _Someone's coming._ Giving one last glance to make sure Kazuharu hadn't gone in that direction, he turned and headed in a different direction.

Kazuharu felt the hype bubbling inside her as she ran; while she was fairly nervous about what could happen, she was also feeling very excited. She'd never done something like this before, and she loved trying new things, especially with friends.

"Ah."

She stopped in her tracks suddenly and everything she just felt vanished, her tears appearing in her caramel eyes as she looked down. It was like everything within her just took a 180 without warning.

"No! My nails are chipped! The poor thing!"

From where Masaki had just been sneaking up on her, he sweatdropped at her sudden complaint to herself. _Kamiya…?_

Kazuharu looked at the knife, tearing up, in the middle of an internal strife. As much as she wanted to cry out _Screw paintball, I quit!_ and go get her nails redone, she also knew deep down that that'd be far too selfish. As she was debating this, out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement, and on instinct, pitched the knife she had been holding at in that direction, yelling out without thinking, "Could you give me a second, I'm still thinking! Ah."

She paused in the middle of her yell when she realized that the person she had thrown her knife at was Masaki, and that he had accidentally fell down as the knife came flying for his head, narrowly avoiding it.

"K-Kaminaga?" She hadn't wanted to be seen like that. No, no, that was bad, wasn't it? Her face paled noticeably and she stepped back a step cautiously. "Um, I'm sorry—" Her hand reached down, but found nothing there. _Crap, that was my only weapon, wasn't it? Ah, what did I do with that gun…_

She must have dropped it somewhere as she was running around. She silently cursed herself, keeping her eyes fixed on Masaki's gun pointed at her.

 _What am I supposed to do now?_

Unbeknownst to her, Masaki's mind was also running in circles.

 _Wait, how did that just happen all of a sudden? What? Wait, that doesn't even matter! Uhh, all I have to do is shoot, right? Just shoot? Even once? But she doesn't even have a weapon and that'd make me feel bad—wait, screw feelings, if I want to win this…No, whether or not she had a weapon, I wouldn't have shot anyway, would I?_

His grip around the gun in his hands tightened slightly, and it was at this moment that Kazuharu came to a final decision.

 _Just book it for now!_

She took off in a sprint, lightly patting her hair down, and then sliding down a short hill (and trying not to twist her ankle) and sharply turning the corner. She briefly glanced over her shoulder and ascertained that Masaki wasn't going to give chase before smiling briefly. _Okay—_

There was a sudden noise nearby, and she flinched instinctively. "Oh yeah, I was supposed to be dealing with that. I forgot." Shaking her head to clear any other lingering thoughts and then inhaling a deep breath, she turned and headed in that direction to talk to the most troublesome of her teammates with her usual cheerful smile.

The thought of her chipped nails had completely left her mind for a moment.

Meanwhile, Masaki…

"In the end, it doesn't even matter whether or not I chase after her, does it?" He muttered to himself, his knuckles turning white with the force he was holding the gun with. "No, but I probably should have…no…what am I even doing? Seriously, whatever…"

Unfortunately, he had ultimately given up on the game.

"Ah! Hanasaka, Doumoto—why are you guys _still_ fighting?!" Kazuharu complained.

"Oh, hey, Kamiya," Ayaka called out nonchalantly as she avoided Jun's angry punches. "Was there something that you needed?"

"Don't look away!" Jun threw his fist straight for her face, and she nimbly ducked under it before jabbing her elbow straight in his ribs.

"Who's looking away?"

Kazuharu realized that the very thought of suggesting that the two working together was instant suicide, and quickly denied Ayaka's question. "N-Not really." She kept her usual cheerful smile on, though it was clear that she was slightly nervous. She took a step back as the fighting duo slid slightly closer to her. "Hanasaka, I was wondering—"

Ayaka's blue eyes caught slight movement from behind Jun, and she instinctively stepped back before pushing Kazuharu to the ground. The girl gave a yelp of surprise at this, but Ayaka gave a short apology before grabbing Jun by the shoulders and ducking behind him.

Fan was suddenly in front of them, a green knife in his hand. His magenta eyes were narrowed slightly as he aimed to stab forward at the perfect target that Ayaka had just provided.

"Damn you, Hanasaka—"

As expected, the class's biggest delinquent wasn't about to be taken down that easily. He used his leg to cut Ayaka's legs out from under her, causing her to fall to the ground and allowing her grip to loosen. Once it did, he ducked down and narrowly avoided the knife that came through, immediately pushing himself to the left and standing up again, on the defensive now. Fan tried to change targets and swung down towards Ayaka, but she neatly did a back somersault and grabbed Kazuharu's arm on her way up, jumping back a few steps.

Ayaka wiped her mouth, looking annoyed. "Che."

Kazuharu was dumbfounded, completely at a loss for words. _Huh? Did she just do what I think she did?_

Jun was the one who voiced it in his usual angry holler. "Bitch! You tried to use me as a human shield just now, didn't you?!"

"Of course I did," Ayaka stuck out her tongue. "Damn, and I thought that would actually work."

A vein popped. "You…you looking down on me?"

"You haven't figured it out yet? I've been looking down on you since day one," Ayaka retorted. "You're just an impulsive delinquent idiot."

"You….!"

 _Uwaah, I can't believe that we were_ actually _thinking of getting these two to work together!_ Kazuharu thought, petrified. "Come on, you shouldn't fight…" Her gaze traveled towards their attacker as she was talking, and she gave a meek squeak before backing up slightly. _Uwaah, Kuroi looks even more pissed off! Wait, why?! A-Anyway, I feel like I'd just be getting in the way here—should I run?_ No _wait, but they're still my teammates in the end…_

She suddenly met Ayaka's gaze, and though the blue-eyed girl immediately looked away, on guard, she also stepped back a bit to murmur to Kazuharu, "Don't worry about us, but I think you should run." Kazuharu noted her tone of voice and nodded without hesitation, turning and going off to find other teammates.

Ayaka briefly glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Kazuharu had run to a safe distance and then turned back to face Fan—

Her hand instinctively flew up and blocked a punch coming at her face from the left, her strong grip easily holding it away from her. An anger vein popped on her head.

"Are you an idiot! No wait, you _ar_ e an idiot!" She changed her statement within milliseconds as she twisted Jun onto the ground with ease, holding him in a deadlock. "Why the hell are you attacking _me_!" Of course, she knew the answer to this.

"Shut up!" Jun grabbed her arm that she was using to pin him down and thrust her off harshly, standing back up and throwing another punch that was easily dodged. "Like I can forgive you that easily! I'm gonna beat you to a pulp—"

"You mega idiot! Don't attack me! Attack him!" She pointed at Fan, and then immediately dodged left to avoid another punch. "Argh, there's no point in trying to reason with you, is there? You'd listen better if I sent you to the hospital, is that it?"

"Bring it on! I'd like to see you try!" Jun snarled.

Right when they both went to attack one another, they both suddenly stopped in their tracks and pushed themselves back a step, both avoiding the green bullet that came between them. Jun turned his glare on Fan. "The hell was that for—"

"You're not serious, are you?" Fan looked ticked off. "In the first place, the two of you are supposed to be fighting against me, you know."

"Is that a two on one battle invitation?" Ayaka asked skeptically.

"You looking down on us?" Jun accused at the same time.

Just as Fan started to answer, he was cut off again.

"Anyway, sorry, but can you make it another time?" Ayaka interrupted carelessly, cracking her fists. "Right now, I have to put this guy back in the hospital."

"Bitch, say that to my face—"

"Just did."

Veins popped in anger. "I'm gonna kill you."

Fan felt a cold fury rising within him. What was this even? It was the first time that he had been ignored so much, especially in such an important situation. He'd thought that attacking them would be able to get them to maybe call a temporary ceasefire and take him seriously, but that had had absolutely zero effect. He was honestly _super pissed off_.

Ayaka stepped backwards, taking her one step closer to him while still avoiding Jun's punches of fury, and Fan finally clicked his tongue in irritation. _Guess I have to get rid of one of them first, don't I?_ He slid his gun back and pulled out the knife he preferred using, silently pulling his hand back and swinging down towards Ayaka's undefended back.

"Hey…"

Before Fan realized what was happening, Ayaka had turned sideways so she could see both boys at once, and then she swiftly used her left hand to catch Jun's fist and her right forearm to stop Fan's wrist at the same time. She then swept her right leg out and managed to trip Fan to the ground before kicking the dropped knife a little off to the side, allowing her to tighten her grip on Jun's fist before bringing her own across and punching him in the face, sending him to the ground as well. Anger veins were popping all over her, and a cold chill seemed to float through the air under her icy gaze.

"…Why am _I_ the one being ganged up on?"

Nagisa was going to get a headache just watching them. Either that, or he was going to cry. "This…this…I'd heard that they didn't get along, but I never imagined…"

"I feel bad for you," Hayami said.

"Uu, that's not helping…" Nagisa sighed and then straightened again, watching as the three scuffled around on the hillside. "But Hanasaka, she really is a natural fighter, isn't she?"

"Well, I don't think I'd call that natural," Chiba noted. "From the way she moves, it seems like she's been not only taught it since she was young and she's been honing it."

"Mm, of course there's that too," Nagisa agreed. "But her reflexes and movements are all natural, I mean. And for Doumoto, he's…"

They had no other words, and the ending thought was clear. _…just a normal delinquent._

"And then the last kid," Hayami pointed.

"Ah…" Nagisa searched his memory. "Kuroi. Oh, he's moving pretty well with that knife despite being new with it. Of course, there's still a lot of faults here and there, but…" He smiled.

"Hey," Lyka leaned over to whisper to Nozomi sitting near her, listening to the teachers' conjectures. "Do you think our teacher might be…"

Nozomi smiled. "Someone really impressive!"

"No, that's not what I was going to say, actually…" Lyka sweatdropped.

"More importantly," Nagisa deadpanned suddenly while watching the fight, "how did that become a three-way fight when there's only two teams involved?"

 _Hanasaka and Doumoto are both good at close combat, so if I get too close then I'll definitely get hurt,_ Fan thought to himself as he gripped his knife tightly and looked for an opening. _Hanasaka doesn't seem as one who would strike on impulse as much though—_

"Hey, Kuroi," Ayaka called out, "Team up with me for a moment and get him out."

"No." His response was immediate.

Ayaka clicked her tongue. "Che. Worth a shot at least. Whatever, I'll get both of you out then."

"Ha! I'd like to see you try!" Jun came charging forward with his fist outstretched, punching forward. Fan reflexively dodged right, taking advantage of the opening to cut forward with his knife, but Jun grabbed his wrist as he did and brought his other fist forward, ready to strike at Fan's face with his full strength.

"Are you stupid?" As expected of the Class Representative, Ayaka was immediately there to stop him—although she flying-kicked the delinquent harshly in the face as she did, using all her strength and sending him flying straight into a tree nearby. "Don't actually hit him!" While yelling at Jun, she narrowly dodged Fan's knife and neatly used her hands to redirect his arms.

"Damn you, Hanasaka!" Enraged, Jun immediately jumped between them, ready to hit both of them at once, but he did so just as Fan had brought his knife up to aim at Ayaka again (who had already moved back to dodge), and the green paint across the knife was slashed right across his face. "...Huh?"

"Eh….ah. Pff. Ahahahahaha!" Ayaka burst into laughter without any reserve. "Oh my god! I can't believe you! That was a great self destruction right there! You really are an idiot!"

While she was laughing, she spun around a couple of times, neatly avoiding all of Fan's stabs at her. Finally wiping tears from her eyes and throwing off Jun's insults towards her, she glanced at Fan. "Sorry, Kuroi, as much as I owe you for that shot, I'm still getting you out."

Fan was a little irritated for getting looked down on, and he raised the knife again. "I'd like to see you try—"

There was a burst of wind, and before he realized it the knife had flown from his hand with just a touch of one of Ayaka's strong kicks, which impacted the tree behind him and rattled the leaves out of the branches. Fan quickly recovered and moved to the side to try to get some distance between them, but Ayaka was faster, grabbing his hand and immediately locking him in place as she swiftly pulled out the knife she had and imprinted a blue mark across his back. Fan clicked his tongue as she released him, his hand curling in a fist tightly.

"You…were you looking down on me?"

"Of course not!" Ayaka said quickly. "Sorry, Kuroi, but I just have more fighting experience than you. Plus, Doumoto keeps my hands tied all the time, so…." Her blue eyes glared harshly at the person in question.

The slight anger showing in Fan's magenta eyes hadn't faded, but he reluctantly conceded this as the truth.

"What was that ending?" Nagisa was shocked.

"Yeah, that doesn't just happen…" Hayami murmured. "Nagisa. Your class is really impressive."

"Don't say it like that!" Nagisa protested. He sighed. "Ah…Hm?" He noticed something all of a sudden and pointed. "It looks like something's happening over there…"

"Don't change the subject, Nagisa."

"That's not what I'm doing!"

Where he was pointing was where two girls were hiding stealthily behind a row of tall bushes, conversing in low tones.

"You're sure about this?" Keda glanced towards Ameko, holding the gun with both hands.

"I'd like to at least try," Ameko nodded in determination.

Keda nodded and glanced back up, ducking down when she noticed someone coming.

 _It's quiet….there's no one around?_ Hirokazu's gaze flickered around as he headed down the empty forest path cautiously. He was almost certain that an ambush was going to happen soon, and yet he couldn't see any signs of it. It was dead quiet, and only the buzzing of occasional insects was heard.

 _Rustle._

He immediately turned and raised his gun in the direction that the noise came from, eyes narrowing slightly—

"Wait a minute, Akutagawa!"

He stopped and lowered it, a little confused. He started walking in that direction to check it out. "Tsukiya?"

"Yeah. There was just something I wanted to talk about. Is that okay?"

"That's fine, but—"

He stopped abruptly. _Would that Tsukiya really ask for help? Earlier she looked…_ He thought back and narrowed his eyes again. _…although gloomy as usual, rather impassive, didn't she? Not to mention that she hasn't approached me herself..._

"Tch, he figured it out," Ameko muttered to herself, though too quietly for Keda to hear. "I knew Akutagawa wasn't a good target. But…close enough, I guess."

Although Hirokazu had stopped in his tracks and was looking to back up, it was already too late. Ameko had already drawn her gun and aimed it through the bush she was hiding behind, her finger tightening on the trigger—

"Behind you!"

 _Blam!_

The moment Ameko pulled the trigger, she felt a force against her arm and winced, falling on the ground hard and nearly losing her breath for a moment. Keda had kicked her to the ground without hesitation. Right when she was about to turn around and glare, there was a sudden gust of wind right behind her head, and she felt a couple strands of her black hair fly in the air as she froze immediately.

" _Target found._ "

Completely unnoticed, Meiko had somehow snuck up on them from behind. She slashed once, in a big motion, aiming to hit Keda and Ameko at the same time. Luckily, Keda had happened to look back at that exact time, kicking Ameko out of the way and using the force to send herself back as well. She flinched when the rubber knife passed within centimeters of her nose, stumbling backward as she nearly lost her balance.

Meanwhile, Hirokazu didn't even have to move to dodge Ameko's shot that went wide, raising his gun defensively, fully on guard now. "Mikanegi…?" Even he hadn't expected Meiko's surprise attack. _More importantly…I definitely heard Tsukiya's voice just now. How…._ His eyes focused on Ameko, who was sitting up. _Wait, is she possibly…_

Keda quickly regained her footing, raising her gun, but she didn't get the chance to fire when Meiko's arm immediately swung back down, her hands flying up to block it by instinct. What came in contact with the green knife, much to her luck, was the gun in her hand.

Meiko's expression didn't change as she immediately pulled her knife back and sliced again, and again, and again, leaving Keda barely any time to react and dodge.

 _Isn't she way too fast?!_ Keda bit her lip, slowly backing up as her reflexes kicked in. They weren't going to last long, though, and she knew it. Meiko's knife threatened to cut in at all angles, not even allowing her to lift the gun. So she didn't bother to aim and instead decided to fire point blank, her gun tip being held at Meiko's waist level.

She didn't get the chance to fire. As if she sensed the danger, Meiko suddenly stopped attacking and hopped backwards a few steps, stopping abruptly in her tracks. Confused, Keda tightened her grip on her weapon slightly, raising it and aiming now, waiting for the blond to make a move.

Ten seconds passed before Meiko suddenly stiffened. "Cheesecake."

Ameko and Hirokazu both sweatdropped. _What did we even expect?_ Keda, on the other hand, pulled the trigger on impulse.

"Found a butterfly!" Meiko turned and ran suddenly, hands outstretched for a light blue butterfly that fluttered across the air suddenly. The blue pellet narrowly brushed past her, and she turned with a confused expression when she felt the wind brush by her head. She tilted her head briefly and then adjusted her stance, a slightly menacing look on her face. "Bad spirit."

"What the heck," Ameko deadpanned as she stood up. She sighed and then smiled at Keda. "But at least you're still safe."

"Yeah," Keda nodded, though she was still clearly confused.

"Mikanegi, did you do any sports before?" Hirokazu asked curiously as the blonde came to a stop next to him. There was no denying her swift motions in those swings.

Meiko glanced in his direction and smiled brightly. Right when he thought she was actually going to answer his question, she stated simply, "I like anime."

Hirokazu sighed. He was actually really curious about the girl named Mikanegi Meiko. The fact that he was never able to understand Meiko in the slightest intrigued him more than just a little.

"Mikanegi—she's really good with that knife," Nagisa noted. "Her movements are very solid, and she doesn't have anything extra…" He frowned a little. _But she's way too fast for having no training before.._. He asked the class, "Does anyone know if she's done any kind of athletics before?"

There was no hesitation in the response. "Who knows. Nobody knows anything about Mikanegi."

Nagisa sweatdropped. "…Is that so."

"What about the black-haired girl?" Hayami asked. "She looked like she was saying something. I couldn't hear her from here."

"Yeah. I wonder what that was."

Hirokazu finished analyzing the situation and said to Meiko without looking at her, "All right. Here's the plan—"

While he hadn't expected her to follow a plan, he had thought that she could at least listen to it, so that it would be in the back of her mind. But the word 'plan' had barely even left his mouth when Meiko suddenly vanished from where she stood and was charging in, her knife already raised.

"Split up, don't let her get too close," Keda instructed Ameko.

Ameko nodded. "Okay."

The two moved in opposite directions quickly, backpedaling and raising their guns. The one that Meiko turned to follow was Ameko, who quickly fired without hesitation. Meiko's blue eyes blinked once, and then in a split second decision, she dropped to the ground to allow the pellets to pass above her. Mud smeared in her long hair and across her uniform, but she didn't seem to mind as she used her built up momentum to slide across the ground. Ameko immediately redirected her aim to the ground but was forced to flee when she found that Meiko had picked up her own gun when it slid out of where it was being held at her waist, and was unloading it without hesitation.

Once Ameko had ducked behind a tree for protection, Meiko leisurely sat up, patted her hair, only smearing the mud even more across her blond hair, and then stood up. Keda took this chance to fire at Meiko's undefended back.

 _Guess I'll just have to improvise._ Hirokazu pushed her gun off target from her side. Keda looked at him in annoyance, but then quickly relaxed her expression and asked, "Aren't you a gun user? Are you okay being this close?"

She's more competitive than I thought, Hirokazu thought wryly, and then answered, "Well, we're at the same disadvantage, so—"

There was no hesitation given as Keda kicked him in the shin as hard as she could.

"Ow!"

Keda immediately followed up with a point blank shot.

"And switch."

"Wah!" Hirokazu was surprised when Meiko suddenly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him down while staying low herself. She pushed him aside and swung forward again, but this time Keda was ready and she unloaded her gun without restraint. Meiko moved to the side quickly, but one of the blue pellets touched her hand—

It fell on the ground without bursting.

"Huh?" They all blinked twice.

"Divine protection," Meiko declared without hesitation.

"It's not," Hirokazu deadpanned. "It is paintball, after all, so the pellets are…" He forcefully cut himself off before he could go on another ramble. There was a time and place for everything and now was not either.

Keda almost seemed to glare at her murderously, as if saying _die, just die_. Then her brown eyes met Ameko's blue ones from behind their opponents, and both girls simultaneously raised their guns to open fire.

"At least one."

Hirokazu looked over in surprise when Meiko suddenly murmured this quietly to herself, the thought, _So she can speak coherently,_ flashing across his head before anything else. Meiko's blue eyes narrowed, and, staying near the ground, she pushed off the ground in a dash. Realizing what she wanted to do, he quickly got to his feet and moved to the side, out of the striking range of the two girls' ambush, knowing that if either girl were to shoot after him they would lose their chance to capture Meiko, and they wouldn't want to risk it.

Somehow, Meiko managed to reach her target first. Both Ameko and Keda opened fire, but she pressed her hand against the ground to steady herself and slashed at the girl's legs, staining the pant legs with green. Apparently, the one she had deemed a bigger threat was Ameko, who, unable to move out of the way fast enough, only sighed a little and lowered her gun in defeat.

 _Splat._

A blue paint pellet hit the back of Meiko's head, and this time actually burst, mixing the paint with the mud now starting to clump in her hair. _All right, it hit this time!_ Keda thought triumphantly.

 _Splat._

Hirokazu didn't overlook the chance to shoot her in turn, staining her white shirt with green. She glared at him. "S-Sorry, I didn't have a choice," Hirokazu apologized sheepishly.

This happened all in a flash.

Nagisa swallowed. "Honestly speaking, I'm shocked…"

"It's too late to be shocked now," Hayami answered crisply.

"Well, that's true," Nagisa sighed. "Anyway, all four of them fought really well. Even though Mikanegi was at a clear disadvantage against two gunners, she was still at least able to take A...ma...ne out with her quick decision," Nagisa mused, stumbling briefly on the name. "Akutagawa's movements are a little bit stiff from time to time, but he doesn't miss the small opportunities. Keda, on the other hand, adapts quickly and adjusts quickly. And Amane…" He frowned. "It seemed like she had some kind of bigger plan…"

The three girls headed up the mountainside towards the jail cell together, though Meiko ended up loitering in the back as she was distracted by butterflies. Keda bit her lip hesitantly, but finally gave in to her curiosity and asked Ameko, "So how'd you do that thing with Tsukiya's voice?"

"Oh," Ameko blushed a little, "you see, I'm pretty good at imitating voices. Girls' voices, at least, though I'm working on guys' as well." As she talked, she slipped into an example by speaking in Keda's voice, "Like this."

Keda's eyes widened in surprise. "That's cool! How'd you learn that?"

"I'm…" Ameko looked away. "I'm a seiyuu, so…"

"Eh? Rea—"

Meiko suddenly popped between the two of them. "I like anime."

Both girls sweatdropped. "I see." The blonde simply smiled at them brightly and returned to chasing a squirrel, her hair still covered in a mix of mud and paint. Keda couldn't help but worry about the girl having to wash it out later and said a silent apology. _I shouldn't have aimed for the head. No, but…_

"Ah, Keda, Amane!"

Both girls turned at the sound of their name, seeing Kazuharu run up cheerfully.

The girl spotted the paint on their clothing and said, "It didn't go too well?"

"I think we just picked the wrong target, that's all," Ameko remarked quietly.

"Maybe so," Kazuharu grinned. "Ah, but you guys did really well!"

"Thanks, Kamiya," Keda smiled at her.

"Incidentally, do you still have your knives?" Kazuharu asked sheepishly. "I kind of dropped mine by accident…"

Luckily, neither of them asked about it as they both held out a rubber knife coated in blue paint for her to use. Kazuharu happily accepted both of them. "Thank you so much!"

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Keda answered. "Good luck!"

"I'll do my best!" Kazuharu waved as she skipped back down the hill. Her mind raced as she ran. _I should find Sano-kun again…no, if he doesn't want to, I shouldn't make him. All right, I'll just do things myself!_

 _Kamiya…_ Wakana's brown eyes watched the girl run past her from where she sat in the trees. She stayed still, not giving any sign of movement. Another familiar face entered the scene carelessly. _Sano…_

It was unclear exactly who it was that she had originally planned on ambushing. As Masahiro was talking by, he happened to glance up— _was it by chance?_ Wakana had to wonder to herself. His gaze did wander a lot, regardless—and the two made eye contact.

Since Wakana hadn't really hid herself and was just sitting on the branch, her blue hair stood out quite a bit in the green leaves. Making up her mind without a moment's hesitation, she dropped to the ground lightly with her knife in hand and charged forward.

Masahiro reacted instantly, stepping to the right to avoid the straight stab. Wakana quickly readjusted, taking a step sideways and swinging the knife across the air. Masahiro stiffened and quickly pulled out his own knife to meet hers, narrowly avoiding the blow. Both of their hands trembled slightly as they tried to block the other from making contact, and eventually Wakana finally jumped away as she recovered.

She patted down her light blue hair, wishing she had brought a ponytail on her. She quickly turned her attention back on her opponent, not wanting to get distracted. This time, Masahiro came to her, and she nimbly hopped backwards a few steps. Spotting a tree branch above her that was short enough to reach, she grabbed it and pulled herself easily, briefly tucking the knife away to free her hands. Once she was up, she took it back in her hands and hopped across the branches, reaching for the spare gun that she had. Masahiro clicked his tongue in irritation as he ducked for cover from the onslaught of green bullets.

 _She's faster than I expected. I suppose it's all those days that she skipped class going off to who knows where…_ Masahiro thought to himself wryly. He let out a breath and narrowed his green eyes slightly. _As much as I'd like to just get struck out here…_ He bit his lip and let the thought trail.

Moving swiftly behind another tree and ducking down to avoid the green paint pellets coming at him, Masahiro racked his brain for ideas. _Well, first, I need to get her out of that tree somehow._

Wakana was being very cautious of Masahiro as she fired. Her shots were a little wobbly since her hand shook with every movement, but she was able to control them enough to go in the general direction she wanted, which was good enough considering she'd never fired a gun before. Really, she hoped none of the students had. Soon, clicking noises were heard with no response, and she tossed the empty gun aside. This was the reason that she'd decided to use the knife as her main weapon; thus, with all of the ambushes she had done, she had unloaded the gun without hesitation when she needed to.

 _I should get closer._ Wakana hopped down from the tree and moved silently, making sure she didn't step on any small branches littered across the floor as she hid from tree to tree. _I know that Sano-kun is very capable, so… My best bet would be an ambush—_

As she peeked out timidly to check on Masahiro's location, her almond brown eyes caught his emerald green ones and she instinctively stepped back behind the tree.

 _He saw me? In that case…_

 _Kusanagi… She's difficult to read. I shouldn't lose sight of her. It'd be preferable if she could close the distance for me—_ Masahiro looked around the tree at Wakana's position, and when their eyes met, he let out a breath of slight annoyance. _Then—_

The two of them both rushed out at the same time, and then their eyes widened as they realized they had been thinking the same thing. Perhaps with the earlier shootout they'd unintentionally gotten the wrong idea that their opponent preferred a gunfight, but regardless of the reason, Masahiro knew that in a frontal confrontation with her (from what he'd seen of her agility) wouldn't serve in his favor. With that mindset, he was the first one to change his footing and move to the right, barely avoiding her first swing.

Wakana's eyes tracked his motion, but her hand was unable to keep up after the previous swing. Masahiro stepped in with his knife to aim for her undefended stomach—

Instinct kicked in, and Wakana sent all of her weight onto her heels, forcing herself to the ground. The knife barely singed a few strands of her hair that she patted down, and then before she even hit the ground, she threw her knife.

As expected, Masahiro was unable to dodge from such a point blank range. He frowned slightly, lowering the weapon in his hands. _Fast… Her reaction speed is even faster than I anticipated. Well, whatever._

Wakana wordlessly took her knife from the ground and stood up, dusting her pants off. She glanced at Masahiro, hesitated, and then simply bobbed her head once, before running.

Masahiro frowned at her actions and muttered to himself, "Was that an apology just now?"

Hayami's green eyes briefly flickered to her right, glancing at the two other instructors who had been silent up until now, and then asked, "So? What are your thoughts, Nagisa?"

"Yeah…" Nagisa thought.

A few seconds passed in silence.

"Nagisa—" Hayami began again.

Behind them, Miya seemed to notice his struggle and piped up cheerily, "Sensei! That's Sano-kun and Kusanagi-chan!"

"Oh! Thank you, Nishiomi!"

Hayami, Chiba, and the class all sweatdropped. _Is that what you were wondering?_ A minority couldn't help but also wonder, _How could Nishiomi tell?_

To answer the unspoken question, Miya declared, "That's because Sensei is my Master— _koff!_ " She broke off with a cough when she hit her chest too hard with her fist.

"…I see," Nagisa's face said that he clearly didn't understand, but he brushed past it anyway. "Anyway, Sano moves well. It's apparent that he thinks things through, and he's very observant, which backs up a lot of his actions."

"That's a good skill to have," Chiba agreed. "The girl, Kusanagi, was it? Her method of fighting resembles yours, Nagisa."

"Eh, does it?"

"Stealth, right?" Hayami filled in.

"Well…you're right," Nagisa admitted. He smiled a little to himself. "She could go a long way with a little training."

"You sound like Korosensei."

"Wha—?!"

To Nagisa who was caught off guard by Chiba's blunt comment, the entire class deadpanned, _Who?_

"Nagisa," Chiba directed the teacher's gaze down below, "who's over there?"

"Uh, let's see," Nagisa mused. "Tsukiya and Katsumi…oh, isn't that Raikatuji as well?"

"It doesn't seem like they've noticed."

"More like…aren't they a little _too_ carefree?"

The two childhood friends in question were walking leisurely through the trees, talking like it was any other morning. Arisa suddenly remembered something and broke off halfway through a topic, posing a question.

"So, what was that this morning?"

"Nothing at all."

To Arisa whose silvery eyes glared at him accusingly, Hiro averted his gaze casually. But as expected of Arisa, there was no way she was letting the subject that easily.

"Are you doing something behind my back again?" Arisa reprimanded.

"Don't you have better things to do than to fuss over my private life, _Mother_?" Hiro countered in a teasing tone. He couldn't help but snicker a little to himself when Arisa bristled in annoyance.

"Jeez, _Hiro._ Well, I guess that's what I get for worrying about you."

"Eh, are you sure you aren't just stalking me?"

"You…gah, why do I even bother?"

"Because worrying is your specialty."

"What do you mean by specialty!"

"You two…aren't you a little too carefree?"

"Huh?"

Arisa and Hiro broke off from their argument when someone interrupted.

"Raika—" Hiro began, but Arisa interrupted, as usual.

"Why are you standing that high up? Are you looking to fall? That branch is definitely going to—"

"Okay, that's enough," Hiro sighed and lightly bopped Arisa on the head.

"Ouch!"

"This is why I said worrying is your specialty."

"And like I said, what do you mean by _specialty_?"

Yukio sweatdropped as he dropped to the floor and headed towards them, deadpanning to himself, _It's as if I'm not even here._ "You aren't taking this seriously at all, are you?"

"Huh? Why?" Arisa asked, blinking as she turned to look at him.

"Why, she says…"

"It's just a game," She said calmly. "I don't see why we're doing this in the first place. It's pointless. We should be doing something more productive. If you want to shoot us, just do it. Isn't that what you're here to do?"

"Wha—?! Why would I do that? It's no good if you guys don't fight back!" Yukio accused, holding up his fist.

"All right, you can leave then," Arisa responded stubbornly.

Yukio seemed to realize that arguing with her would do neither of them any good, and changed tactics. "What about you, Katsumi?"

"Ah? Well…" Hiro seemed to think for a moment, very aware of Aries's glaring daggers at him though he pretended not to see it. "It doesn't really matter to me either way, so…"

"See?" Arisa declared.

"Why do you look so triumphant…"

"Can't you go one moment without that attitude?"

"Look who's talking."

The two of them were suddenly interrupted when Yukio threw his fist in between them, and Hiro instinctively pulled Arisa aside. Both of them stumbled a little as they narrowly avoided the punch, and Yukio followed their movement with his eyes, bristling with anger.

"Listen, dammit!"

"Hey, that's dangerous!" Arisa exclaimed, a little flustered. She ignored her childhood friend who stuck his fingers in his ears at her shout. "What would you have done if that hit me?!"

"Hah?! That's the whole point, idiot!"

"Don't call me an idiot. Also, this isn't called a _brawl,_ but a _paintball_ game, you know. Do I have to drill that into your head or something?"

"Oh, is that so?!"

Completely ignoring her now, Yukio aimed for another strike, the power behind his fist clear as day. Arisa yelped in surprise as she stumbled backwards, her foot slipping as she moved. She sat down on the ground hard and winced. "Ow…" When Yukio looked like he wanted to attack again, Hiro quickly stepped in with his knife, forcing the blond to back up as his sharp reflexes kicked in.

Arisa glared at the hard mud that clung to her gym uniform, brushing it off as she stood up. _At least we're not in our regular uniforms, but still…I guess I'll take it home tonight._

"If you're fine now, why not move?"

"Gee, thanks," Arisa grumbled as she pulled out the gun she had on her and backed up slightly. She touched the weapon tentatively, as if she expected it to suddenly blow up in her hand. "Do we really have to do this?"

"Well, I don't think he'll back down anytime soon, so…" Hiro let his words trail off as he carefully positioned himself between his opponent and his teammate, holding the knife defensively.

"You're _really_ pissing me off, you know…" Anger veins were apparent on Yukio's head.

Arisa didn't need Hiro to tell her to run when Yukio charged forward again, and she immediately broke off in a run. _Well, it's two-on-one so we should have a little bit of an advantage, but I definitely can't underestimate Raikatuji…as much as I hate to admit it, it seems like he has quite a bit of skill in the fighting department. There's no way Hiro's holding up to that. No matter what, I need to keep my distance advantage._

A little nervous, she moistened her lips and came to a stop behind a tree, lifting the gun. The aim wavered with the shaking of her hand, but it didn't matter; she wasn't shooting to hit. She fired at Yukio once, flinching at the recoil. _I didn't think I'd ever_ _be firing a gun like this…_

She steadied her resolve with a long exhale and then fired a couple more times. Her shots often strayed from the target, but she didn't mind as it served to make them more unpredictable.

Yukio noticed them from the corner of his eye and quickly jumped aside, letting them all past him. He shot a glare in Arisa's direction. "Screw off—"

Hiro took the opening to slice forward, though he was clearly already expecting to miss. Yukio stepped to the side easily, but Arisa fired again to block him from countering.

Easily avoiding the attacks but unable to retaliate, the blond was becoming increasingly annoyed. Neither of them were incredibly powerful, but their teamwork wasn't something to scoff at. This was fairly expected given the length of time the two had been together, but that didn't make Yukio feel any better about it.

"Weren't you the one who wanted us to take things more seriously?" Hiro teased as he avoided another strong punch.

"Shut it."

A bullet signed past him, and he had a mini heart attack for a moment. It was a good thing that Arisa had no aim. _Like I thought, Tsukiya is the most annoying…_ He scowled slightly when Hiro blocked his way again. Both boys were aware that the blond was definitely more powerful, but nonetheless, Hiro showed no hesitation in blocking off any possibility of Yukio's retaliation. If Yukio pulled out his knife or gun, he'd be able to take out Hiro in an instant.

The reason behind Hiro's movements was probably not his belief in Arisa, though that may have been a part of it. Frankly, it was more likely to be because he didn't _care_ if Yukio struck him out; in fact, it may even have been preferable if he did.

And that—just the fact that they weren't taking him seriously—drove Yukio over the edge more than anything else.

"Screw this."

He grabbed the gun that he had, which was most likely only half full now, and aimed in the general direction of both of them. Hiro looked like he wanted to dodge, but he stopped suddenly. Blue paint splattered on his white shirt, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Katsumi, are you shitting me?"

"Huh? Ah, sorry," Hiro frowned slightly. "I was just considering something. Did I get—yup, I got hit. Well, whatever."

Yukio snarled a little. _Like I thought, I can't deal with these two. I'll take Tsukiya out quickly and go find someone else—_ But when he moved to step forward, Hiro once again blocked his way. "Hah?! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I mean, Sensei never said that I had to go up there immediately after getting hit, right?" Hiro explained matter of factly. "He just said that the jail cell is in that general direction or something. So before I head over, I might as well act as Arisa's human shield for a while since she can't do anything on her own."

"I heard that!" Arisa yelled from afar.

"I'm aware."

"Nagisa."

On the mountaintop, all eyes turned to Nagisa expectantly as they pieced together what was happening, who began to sweat nervously. "Well…I may have worded it like that…"

The remaining half of the sentence, _but I didn't mean it that way!_ , was left unsaid as everyone around him sighed.

"I-I didn't think they'd be using the _rules_ to their advantage!" Nagisa protested quickly. His blue eyes slid to the side nervously. "I just wanted it to be fair and safe. The rules aren't supposed to be part of the play."

"I guess you're right," Hayami conceded.

Nagisa let out a breath of relief. "So…that's Katsumi, right? It seems like he put quite a bit of thought into this, though his movements seem kind of laid back."

"He and the girl both," Chiba agreed. "They have good teamwork, but I can't see the motivation behind it."

"Well, you did spring this up all of a sudden, so it's not a surprise if some of the students aren't interested," Hayami commented, taking a stab straight at the blue-haired teacher's feelings.

"Uu…I just wanted the atmosphere to lighten up a bit…"

"Nagisa…you don't do that with a _paintball game._ "

" _I know that!_ " Nagisa exclaimed, and then coughed once to redirect the subject again. "And then…Raikatuji, on the other hand, seems fairly aggressive—he's too aggressive though; it's a little straightforward, but he definitely has more power than Katsumi and Tsukiya."

"…Then, between Raikatuji and Tsukiya, who do you think will come out on top?" Keda behind him put in curiously.

Nagisa considered this. "…If I had to say…most likely Raikatuji."

"You bastard—isn't that against the rules?"

"Why? I'm going based off of Sensei's words, and I'm not attacking you at all. I'm just standing here. Plus, if it was against the rules, Arisa would have called me off immediately, you know."

"How can you say that? You're on the same team."

"And do we care about this game? Not particularly. Not that it really matters in the first place; that girl is the walking book of rules."

Yukio couldn't deny that as the truth. There was no doubt that Arisa had a strong reputation as pretty much an unofficial disciplinary member, and that she spouted off rules without hesitation whenever she spotted any wrongdoings. Everyone in the class knew at least this much.

It didn't infuriate him any less, though.

"Don't blame me if you get hurt, all right?"

Yukio cracked his knuckles and pulled his arm back, but a flash was seen from the corner of his eyes and he immediately ducked before moving out of the way instinctively. Hiro glanced down when green paint further colored his shirt and clicked his tongue irritably.

"Arisa, haven't you heard of something called aim?"

"S-Shut it! I didn't come to school today expecting to be doing this! Sheesh, I just don't understand the teacher…Games are a waste of time, anyway."

It sounded like something snapped.

"…Just now…what did you just say?"

"Huh? Are you deaf or something? I _said_ —"

"Arisa, you probably want to stop talking. I think you struck a nerve."

"I'm going to murder you."

Arisa didn't even get the chance to ask why when Yukio suddenly shoved Hiro aside forcefully and approached the girl without hesitation, easily dodging any of the stray bullets that Arisa fired in a panicked frenzy. In the end, Arisa stepped back half a step when Yukio came to a stop in front of her, turning the tip of the gun away from him.

"What did I say?"

"Games. Are. _Not_. A. Waste. Of. Time."

"We all have our own opinions, or something, right?" Arisa retorted sarcastically.

In response, a blue-coated knife stabbed forward, and Arisa reflexively dropped to the ground. She released her grip on the gun that Yukio had a firm grip on and darted under him nimbly, racing over to Hiro.

"Hiro, give me your gun."

"Shouldn't you say please?" Hiro commented even as he tossed his spare gun her direction. Arisa's silvery eyes flickered behind her briefly, and then she quickly ducked behind her childhood friend when an onslaught of bullets attacked the area. "Ouf," Hiro made a face as blue further dyed his shirt. "I thought you said games were a waste of time. Aren't you getting into this a little too much then?"

"Shut up," Arisa muttered as she tentatively tested the gun before peeking out and firing in retaliation.

"Also, don't just use me as any other obstacle—"

"You said you were going to be my human shield, didn't you?"

Hiro glanced down at the paint staining his shirt skeptically. "…Got it. Then you're doing my laundry later."

"Wha—argh, whatever! I'll do it! Anyway, I'm going to get some distance. Buy me some time!"

"Ehh…"

As she said this, she met his gaze with an expectant look, and he realized that she had an idea in mind. And he wasn't going to like it. _Why did I sign myself up for this again…_

Arisa's mind worked rapidly as she ran. _Think…think…since I haven't played games before, I can only think strategically…not that I know how that really works either. But Raikatuji's movements right now are fairly straightforward, so as long as I can try to keep myself at a distance, it'll be fine…no, that alone won't work. I need to keep attacking…_

She hid herself in the nature around them, extremely cautious of Yukio's position. Once she was sure she was out of sight, she kept her gaze on her opponent as she moved as quietly as she could, looking for a good place to counter. She'd already attacked Yukio from behind several times, and due to his incredible reflexes, it had yet to work, so she had a different idea in mind.

Making sure that Hiro blocked Yukio's vision, she fired at her teammate instead.

Hiro felt an impact on his back and barely held back an eye roll as he stepped aside. _I knew she would try that. Whatever, she said she'd wash it out for me anyway, so she'll do it._ He glanced in Yukio's direction and sighed. _Well,_ _I knew it wasn't going to work, either._

Yukio had already began to charge forward, aiming to close the distance in one go. He took large, zig-zag motions with his running as Arisa fired wildly while stepping backwards, causing all of her shots to be a few seconds off. As she continued to step backwards, she suddenly yelped in surprise as her back ran into something, presumably a tree, and she stumbled. When Yukio threw his fist forward upon reaching her position, her instincts kicked in and she used the hillside to push herself aside.

 _It's a good thing he attacks with his fist…I definitely don't want to get hit by that. If he had used a weapon, I'm not sure I would have dodged in time…_ She glanced towards Hiro, but like she thought, he was simply leaning absently against a tree watching her fight. She gave a small glare before returning to the battle at hand, drawing her knife and making random slashes in front of her as he got closer. _I have to distract him enough to run away._

She was suddenly tempted to throw something as a distraction. Pushing the thought aside (it was against the school rules, after all), she got a different idea, and called out, "Hiro, you have my other gun, right?"

"Yeah. I'll throw it if you need it."

Satisfied with the answer, Arisa didn't hesitate to unload the gun she had. Up until now, she had been attempting to pace her shots in hopes that they would hit by sheer luck, but if it was a distraction she needed, that wasn't going to work.

As she hoped, Yukio couldn't escape the random onslaught as easily and was forced to move behind a tree for cover. Arisa lowered the gun and turned quickly to escape, but she had barely run anywhere when her shoulder was grabbed from behind and she was forcefully turned around.

"Huh?"

Arisa had definitely underestimated Yukio's speed. Or maybe she just exercised too little, and she wasn't as fast as she'd have liked to be. But regardless, Yukio's knife mercilessly slashed across her shirt, and her knees gave away due to surprise as she slid to the ground.

"Can't you be a little less violent…" She grumbled to herself.

"Is that all you have to say?" Yukio demanded.

Arisa cast her silvery eyes to the side. "…No…actually, I'm…sorry for what I said earlier."

Yukio blinked in surprise when he barely caught onto her mumbling. The knife slipped from his fingers and dropped to the ground.

"About games being a waste of time. That was…kind of fun."

Silence rang out in the area, as Arisa, a little embarrassed, waited expectantly for an answer, and Yukio, stunned and a little confused, was unsure of how to respond. Hiro broke the awkwardness with a single word.

"Tsundere."

"Shut up."

Yukio laughed suddenly. "All right. Then let's play something else another time, Tsukiya."

"Don't get ahead of yourself!"

As the three bickered back and forth playfully, on the jailhouse, Ameko murmured to herself, "Wow, Sensei was right…"

"Yeah, that's amazing!" Nanami agreed. "Even I thought that Tsukiya might be able to pull it off for a second."

But Ran's green eyes were narrowed slightly as she pressed a hand to the Bluetooth she had in her ear, looking at the vacant space in front of them. "…Sensei?"

* * *

Kazuharu hadn't expected to run into an opponent so suddenly. She had felt like she was running in circles, looking for either allies or enemies, wondering where everyone had went. She noticed something moving in the distance, from the treetops, and immediately turned around to start in a different direction—

"Oof! I'm sorry—uwah!" She turned around again and broke off in a run, ducking down and holding her hair down when a rain of green pellets passed over her head. "Akutagawa-kun!"

"Sorry," Hirokazu said sheepishly, lifting his gun again and stopping the gunfire. "It was kind of a reflex."

Saying this, he started firing again, secretly relieved that he had thought to grab two handguns to allow the continuous onslaught. Kazuharu ducked behind a tree, making sure that her hair wasn't sticking out. The last thing she wanted was having to shower for hours due to paint in her hair. Her brother would undoubtedly blow up at her if she did.

When the gunfire stopped for a moment, Kazuharu peeked out of her hiding place timidly, and yelped in surprise when she found that Hirokazu had crossed the distance to find her, aiming the gun at her now visible form. She once again circled the tree to hide.

She thought to herself, _Come to think of it, isn't Akutagawa-kun like, really smart? And he took down Keda and Amane too…_ She felt the two knives in her hands from her friends. The mental side note of ' _Mikanegi was there too_ ' was left as just that, a side note. _All right, I'll do my best!_

The gunfire stopped again, and Kazuharu immediately took the chance, pushing herself to her feet and rushing out and charging forward. Unfortunately, Hirokazu seemed to have expected this and threw his spare knife at her. Reflex kicked in and she ducked, protecting her face with her hands.

 _All right!_ She thought to herself triumphantly when she was within striking range. She hesitated briefly but then pushed all her doubts aside and swung forward with her right hand. Hirokazu narrowly stepped backwards enough, and it was clear that he was trying to put some distance between them, but Kazuharu was closing with every step she took, undermining all of his efforts. Although her strokes clearly weren't very firm or accurate, she was persistent in attacking and didn't allow him to escape.

Hirokazu fired once from close range, hoping to make her back off at least a little so he could aim properly. It succeeded, as she was barely able to react in time to move aside. Hirokazu backtracked a few steps and then raised his gun again, but was surprised to find that she had already recovered and closed in once more.

 _All right! I just have to stick to him and hope I hit eventually!_ was what the optimistic Kazuharu thought to herself.

As she swung forward again, she caught sight of something vaguely familiar from the corner of her eye.

"Wah, my nails chipped _again_!" Kazuharu wailed to herself before she could stop herself.

Unfortunately, this moment of distraction was fatal for her and when Hirokazu fired at her again, she could only rely on the instinct that kicked in once more—but this time, it led to her losing her balance and, with a slight noise of surprise, she sat down on the floor. "Ow!" She stiffened and looked behind her to find her path blocked by a tree.

"Sorry—"

 _Splat._

Hirokazu flinched as he felt a sudden impact on his back, and he froze, glancing behind him but finding no one. He turned to look at Kazuharu again, who was still sitting in front of him with a slight pout on her face. "Kamiya, did you set me up?" He asked cautiously, but he didn't even need to look to know that it wasn't her.

Kazuharu frowned. "What do you mean?"

"No, I mean—" He touched the back of his shirt and his fingers came away sticky like he had expected, but it wasn't in the color that he thought it was. "What is this?"

Even Kazuharu was utterly confused as she pushed herself to her feet and came over to look.

" _Black paint…?_ "

* * *

Brushing her curly hair out of her face, Masako kept her eyes alert as she carefully hopped from branch to branch, careful not to lose her footing. Suddenly, the Bluetooth she had in her ear beeped twice, and she switched it on.

"What's up, Mu—"

"Watch out for black paint."

As usual, Ran cut straight to the point, leaving Masako to only answer with a confused "Huh?"

Plus, Ran had said this so matter-of-factly that the red haired sniper never would have guessed her next words.

" _The teachers are in this game too._ And damn are they good."

Remaining players—

Red Team: Kazuya, Kal, Rin

Blue Team: Ayaka, Kazuharu, Yukio

Purple Team: Masako

Green Team: Masaki, Wakana

* * *

First things first...To those of you who told me you _actually_ thought that Ayaka and Jun would make a good team, thank you for that but...Ha. Haha. Have you learned your lesson now? Smiles sunshines.

Anyway, that aside~

Things are just getting good, aren't they? What do you think is going to happen next? :3 Which characters do you think are the best at fighting from what you've seen? Which characters would you like to see rescued? Which characters do you think would be the best match against Nagisa? And the two sniping experts? (These are optional questions, but it would help me a lot for the next chapter if you could answer it).

I don't think I have much else to say here...so I'll just sign off and wait for you guys to review. Thanks again! Can't wait to hear what you guys thought of this! Oh, yes, I loved hearing which battles you guys liked so do tell me which one was your favorite again! :D

My next goal is a chapter in under a month! Let's see how well I do!  
~Chikage

PS. Ah! One more thing. I've had a lot of people tell me that this class is full of naturals, but they really aren't! I'm trying to bring out certain parts while also giving weaknesses; plus, if you watch Nagisa and Karma fight, this is nothing close to that, so it's not like they're already at a genius fighting level already or something. Just wanted to clarify that, because they all have lots of room for growth! (I hope. Assuming I can up the battle hype even more). Plus, having bland battles is boring for both you and me.

PPS. I also wish I could bring you wonderful, wonderful four-way battles, but unfortunately I'm not that skilled at writing action yet. Hopefully I'll get there someday :) I only bring this up because I recently watched a wonderful anime that had wonderful three-way / four-way battles that make me want to cry, so I feel bad now...But eh~


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